Anxiety, difficulty in emotion regulation, and stress: The impact of modern lifestyles

Anxiety is becoming a more common issue worldwide. Anxiety is not just a response to everyday stress but can become a chronic condition that significantly affects the quality of life and the functioning of social relationships. Given our current lifestyle, the younger generation is much more exposed to this.

Stress is a natural part of life and essentially an adaptive response, but chronic, long-term stress can cause serious harm to both mental and physical health. In today's society, the pressure of performance at work, the constantly accessible digital world, and financial uncertainty often lead to burnout. The modern lifestyle leaves less time for rest and recovery, contributing to the development of chronic stress. In the long run, improper management of stress can lead to serious health issues, such as cardiovascular diseases or psychological disorders.

Despite certain impacts we continuously face and find difficult to eliminate completely, we are capable of developing skills that help us cope with stress and anxiety. One such skill is emotion regulation, which allows us to manage and appropriately direct our emotional responses in various situations. Due to the fast pace of modern life and increasing pressure, many struggle to find the right tools to manage their emotions. Difficulties in emotion regulation are often linked to anxiety and stress and have a significant impact on an individual's quality of life. In anxiety and stressful situations, those without effective emotion regulation strategies are more prone to face more severe psychological disorders.

Within the scope of emotion regulation, it's also important to highlight the beneficial effects of breathing exercises in coping with anxiety and stress. These short and effective exercises can be applied at any time of the day and affect through basic biological processes, thus can be successfully used by almost anyone.

Overall, it can be said that the issues of anxiety, stress, and emotion regulation are part of modern life, but with conscious effort and appropriate support, they can be managed. Psychological help, supportive communities, and techniques aimed at personal development can play a key role in alleviating these problems.

Source: Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1-26