Work-life balance is a popular buzz phrase in today’s workplace culture, and for good reason. A company called worklifebalance. com defines the work-life balance as a balance between achievement and enjoyment, though not necessarily in equal parts, as there are only so many hours in a day (Bird, 2003). The lines between a person’s professional life and personal life have become blurred compared to what workers experienced a few generations ago. Workdays are longer, expectations are higher, and, thanks to technological advances, working from home has become common in many professions. This allows work to overflow more and more into life in a way that is not necessarily productive or healthy. Not having a clear separation between the two can lead to chronic stress. Mental Health America, formerly known at the National Mental Health Association, said: Overstimulation Because the lines between work and home life have become so blurred, and many of us continue to work even after we have gone home for the day, our brains are not getting a break. Many of us stare at computer screens at the office and then smartphone or tablet screens away from the desk and then television screens during leisure time. We are starting to understand how too much screen time can actually rewire the brain, more so in children, but adults are also affected. The blue light of computers, handheld devices, and television screens has also been shown to negatively affect sleep, especially when we are exposed to it close to the time of day when we sleep. Additionally, there is now talk in the medical and psychological fields of a phenomenon called screen addiction . If you have a smartphone, you can test this theory by counting the number of times in a day that you pick up your phone to check in with the national news, social media, text messages, email, or games. The total by the end of the day will probably shock you, and it is not just you. Screen addiction has become a social norm, at least here in the United States. Dr. Adam Alter, a social psychologist and professor at NYU, described this addiction in an interview for an article titled “We Can’t Look Away from Our Screens” in The New York Times in 2017: The definition I go with is that it has to be something you enjoy doing in the short term, that undermines your well- being in the long term—but that you do compulsively anyway. We’re biologically prone to getting hooked on these sorts of experiences. If you put someone in front of a slot machine, their brain will look qualitatively the same as when they take heroin. If you’re someone who compulsively plays video games—not everyone, but people who are addicted to a particular game—the minute you load up your computer, your brain will look like that of a substance abuser. We are engineered in such a way that as long as an experience hits the right buttons, our brains will release the neurotransmitter dopamine. We’ll get a flood of dopamine that makes us feel wonderful in the short term, though in the long term you build a tolerance and want more. (Dreifus, 2017) The content of our screen time also matters. As indicated in the American Psychological Association study discussed above, many Americans are stressed about our current political and social climate. Tuning into the news on television or engaging Overmedication WHO released a report conducted by Medco Health Solutions, Inc., called “America’s State of Mind” that analyzed the use of psychological medications (antidepressants, antianxiety treatments, ADHD treatments, and antipsychotics) to treat behavioral and psychological disorders between 2001 and 2010 (see Section 5: References for a link to the report). The report showed a 22% increase in the use of these medications in those 10 years, with an average of one in five adults using them
For a lot of people, the pursuit of a healthy work/life balance seems like an impossible goal. With so many of us torn between juggling heavy workloads, managing relationships and family responsibilities, and squeezing in outside interests, it’s no surprise that more than one in four Americans describe themselves as ‘super stressed.’ And that’s not balanced—or healthy. … Over time, stress also weakens our immune systems, and makes us susceptible to a variety of ailments from colds to backaches to heart disease. (Mental Health America, 2018) This has become the norm for many of us as our acceptance of being under constant pressure grows, and it is literally killing us. As discussed in Section 1 of this course, we are now seeing some of these effects of chronic stress become the leading cause of death in United States and other places. in debate on social media when everything is already at a fever pitch can be an anxiety-inducing experience. However, it is like the proverbial train wreck: we just cannot seem to look away. If the events we witness while watching the news, for example, are serious enough, our brains process the information by triggering the fight-or-flight response, as if we were actually there. We can switch into survival mode even when our own immediate survival is not being threatened. Because we get the rush of adrenaline, we keep going back for more. How many of us are glued to the television when a tragedy of epic proportions happens in the United States? The same can be said during a public or national scandal. Scientists believe that we, as humans, react more strongly to negative situations than positive ones because they create more arousal in the brain. However, the increased arousal carries all the negative effects on the body as chronic stress, and we are not doing enough to counterbalance them. All of this virtual connectedness then leads to more stress, and while we are browsing social media, playing games online, or watching television, we are not spending time with our spouses or playing with our kids. We are avoiding, perhaps unconsciously, physical human contact. Virtual human contact that we participate in online is rapidly replacing real human contact and social engagement. But at what cost? Besides the overstimulation of the brain, the body suffers from lack of touch, which is fundamentally important for primates like us. Humans, like the other primates, communicate with each other through touch in subtle ways that we cannot communicate through language alone. Physical touch triggers the release of oxytocin, the “feel good” hormone, as well as increasing levels of dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that affect mood and anxiety levels. This is what creates the excitement we experience in new romantic relationships when we find ourselves craving the physical presence of the new romantic partner. Physical touch has also been proven to boost our immune system and lower our blood pressure. “Warm, friendly patterns of touch also calm down the recipient’s neurophysiology of stress. In one study, simply holding the hand of a loved one deactivated stress-related regions of the brain when anticipating going through a stressful experience” (Keltner, 2017). As massage therapists, we already knew this, but it is important to remember the natural, positive biochemical effects that we can create, especially as we compare them to pharmaceutical tools for reducing stress and anxiety. regularly. The report also indicated that an estimated 40 million American adults suffered from anxiety disorders in 2010. But perhaps the most alarming data in this report were the almost 50% increase in the use of antianxiety medications for children ages 10 through 19 during those 10 years. IQVia, a database tracker for the United States health care industry, documented that in 2017, 389,558 children ages 0 to 5 years old were prescribed antianxiety medications, and the total was
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