The Mental Hazards of City Living

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

This is precisely the reason why so many city dwellers run to the hills and the woods every weekend! It's to download stress, and re-charge their batteries.

Well, maybe we now have scientific proof of something we all probably already understood.

City dwellers worldwide enjoy several advantages over their rural compatriots, including, on average, better job prospects and better access to food and health care (not to mention nightlife). At the same time, city living can be stressful, and studies have found that mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders, are more common in urbanites.

However, according to a recent article in Science Now Magazine, researchers have taken a crack at understanding this connection by looking for differences in how the brains of people from urban and rural environments react to certain kinds of stress using brain-imaging methods.

You can click here to read the full article.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

2 comments

Assistant said...

Great article, thanks for sharing that link.

Being someone who has lived in both cities and suburban areas, I can tell a great difference between the two environments. Clear advantages and disadvantages to both, I think age is an important factor too.

I think city life is great after college and starting a career, but you can see after a few years in the city, most venture back out and at least commute.

The Smoky Mountain Hiker said...

Assistant - Generally speaking, I think your spot on.