Our brain was wired a few million years ago, and it hasn’t changed much ever since.
For example, today sweets are very available at every corner yet we still have an inner sugar binge impulse, deriving and evolving from the fact that millions of years ago as hunters-gatherers, berry bushes were rare; and whenever you encountered one you had an inner impulse to eat as many berries as you can – who knows when will be the next time that you’ll find another one?
The survival instincts of the past are still shaping our lives today, but the problem is that the world we are living in today is totally different in so many aspects than what our brain had been designed for.
Despite the fact that we are not being chased by lions and tigers anymore, our survival instincts of Fight-Flight-Freeze that were designed for escaping such predators, are still triggered often.
Are stress and anxiety the 21st century epidemics?
We are living in an era of unprecedented physical abundance, where even the simplest man has access to better medical treatment than the richest kings and pharaohs of the past have ever had.
An era where people have access to so much food and clothing, enjoy the miracle of electricity and light whenever they want, can turn on the air conditioning in summer for a cool breeze, and heat their homes whenever they want in winter.
So why are we so depressed and stressed all of the time?
One of the reasons is the modern social structure.
Our social structure and behaviors have been formed hundreds of thousands of years ago, as mankind lived mostly in small communities, of 100-150 individuals.
Today in the western world our family and social connections are weaker, and we live in a social environment that is very different than what our brains were built for.
People today are lonelier than they used to be in the past, as most people are not living in small intimate villages and communities; and when our prehistoric needs are not being fulfilled, our brain reacts and enters into an unaware survival mode, that often leads to stress, depression, and anxiety.
Another major difference of our time is social media.
The feeling that we suck and that all of our friends and family have a better life/career/family/partner/hobbies/fill-in-the-blank than we have, is making us ill.
Not only that, since we are living in a global world we now have to compete with the most beautiful (and photoshopped) models, the fittest superhuman athletes, the coolest entertainers, and the rest of the ultra successful people of the world.
When you’re holding your phone checking your Instagram feed you don’t have to fear for your life, as if you’re being chased by a lion, but what your brain feels at that moment can sometimes be exactly the same.
Being in this constant popularity competition has its toll, and our brain’s stress plague is always switched on at some level of intensity, trying to save us from the predators of the world, that we now carry in our pockets all day long.
Also, in comparison to western society, it’s fascinating to learn that even if we put aside general physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, many of modern diseases like Crohn’s and Colitis disease for example, almost does not exist in non-western societies like Africa, and even South America.
Obviously there are many more factors that are causing diseases, but it’s still pretty amazing to discover that such a common illness has almost no evidence in Africa.
Where do we go from here?
Well, changing the internal structure of our brains is probably impossible or at least will take us a very long time, even though Elon Musk would argue about that, so the question is what can we do with the fact that our brains are simply not designed for modern life?
Mental health and well being are becoming a bigger and bigger global issue, and people are looking for answers – whether it’s religion, traditional Psychology and Psychiatry, eastern philosophy, meditation, eastern medicine, mindfulness, and so many other methods; people are looking for a way to change their lives.
