What I read
In Does City Living Hurt Mental Health? Matteo wrote the story about relation between mental health problem and living in cities. According to research from King college London university by servery 108 people about city living experience , it found that living in urban area significantly roes mental illness because of noisy pollution, stress and congestion. On the other hand, the American research found that live in rural area can reduce possibility of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is brain disorder. It also found that living in city can develop three times higher mental risk chance than living in urban area. Further more, the researchers have new plan to conduct new survey with more people and more nationality around the world to investigate about this relation.
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My response
I have lived in Bangkok for all of my life. I felt that there are many things that increase our strain, for example, traffic congestion, competition in working place or cost of living. More and more people come to city center to find job or learning at university. As in article stated that people in city will have more chance to due with mentality illness. I agree with it. Even though, I cannot compare directly between living in urban area and rural area because I have only one side experience, based on my experience when I visit my grandmother at Ratchaburi province I felt that It is much more relax than living in Bangkok , for instance, surrounding by green environment, living with slow life and friendly people.
Immigration of people to capital city is not occurring only UK or Thailand but I happened all around world. The more citizens come the more stress will occur such as more competitive in job market or pricing accommodation which significantly rise over twenty years. Government should concern about this issue. Personally decentralization is good idea like many countries did before. The provinces like Chaingmai and Phukit, Ubon Ratchathani may be the second capital city of Thailand.
I am waiting for the result of new survey of the research, which will survey more people and more countries, but I think it will be the same as previous result that city life have significantly correlated with mental illness.
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My question
Do you think people living in city or countryside have more mentality risk? Why? which do you prefer to live in ?
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Reference
- Matteo, A. (2018, April 2) Does City Living Hurt Mental Health?. VOA. Retrieved from https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/health-lifestyle-city-living-mental-health/4322919.html
Reading New's post reminded me of my own experience. Like New visiting his grandmother at Ratchaburi province, I notice the great difference between my chosen life in the centre of Bangkok and the rural area my family lives in back in Australia. In fact, for the first sixteen years of my life, I lived on a farm with my family. Then I moved to the centre of Sydney to go to university.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the rural lifestyle is more relaxed. WHen I'm in Australia these days, which is usually for Songkran, I stay at my brother's place, which is a farm near a large country town. It's perfectly quiet except for birds calling to each other, and the cows mooing sometimes. It's far enough away that you can't hear the noise from the road. And it's green. He has some cleared areas for his cattle, but there is also native bush areas still there, complete with koalas in the trees and other native Australian animals.
It really is beautiful and peaceful. But like the millions crowding in to Bangkok and other cities, I would much prefer to live in a large city. A few days in the country, or visiting a village in Thailand, it enough of the quiet life. It very quickly becomes a bit boring and it can be very stressful not having the conveniences that are normal in cities. The fact that more and more people are leaving farms to move to cities seems to me to suggest that they really do prefer the city life to the country life. Whatever the risks of city living, millions of people freely chose to live in cities rather than in more peaceful rural areas. I think the solution is to make cities more pleasant and more liveable.
For example, rather than wasting public money on roads, which only encourages more people to own and drive cars, I think governments should spend more on improving public transportation systems so that people don't need cars. I've never owned a car, and it has never been a problem, but if I lived in the country like my brothers and sisters do in Australia, then I would need a car. Perhaps the road taxes on private cars are way too low: they could be increased to pay for cheaper public transport in cities, which might effectively reduce the noise pollution and congestion that are major causes of stress for people living in large cities.
This topic is very interesting!!!
ReplyDeleteI had a four years experience to live in Nan, a province in Northern of Thailand, and faced a invaluable and wonderful life there. I very miss that time. Last year, I moved back to Bangkok and affected a culture shock here. I was shocked with driving culture, crowding BTS, traffic jam, air pollution, hurry life, and cruel people. After read your post, I recall my peaceful life, slow activity, beautiful culture, wonderful natural environment and kindness people in Nan. Have you ever been Nan? If you have never gone there, you should close this blog and book an airplane ticket then you will appreciate there.
I'm OK, I've booked tickets to spend a few days at my brother's place in Australia over Songkran. After that perfect quiet among the green, I'll be ready to jump back into Bangkok's noisy bustle.
DeleteI agree with this research that people living in city have more mental illness than people in the contryside. From my experience, I living in Bangkok. It has many factors that cause stress such as the pressure from learning, working, traveling, traffic jam, environment, family and friends that it causes mental health problems.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the research result and your response because I was born in countryside and life is totally difference. When I live in my hometown, my environment is not contaminated with the pollution. The air and water are fresh. The ecology is always nice. The animals live with their natural habitats, and they are all in the food chain that is really ideal area of urban. However, it cannot find in urban because of the environmental contamination. Also, I am the one who be a part of un-happy people to stay in Bangkok, but Bangkok provides a lot of facilities such as school, infrastructure, public transportation and health care providers. Therefore, all of that are the reason why I have to stay here.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that decentralization should be realized in order to reduce the problems both from the environment and people.
Lastly, I would prefer to stay in my hometown when I retire. I would like to stay in pure atmosphere. Moreover, people are so kind, and I can have slow life.
Definitely, living in a city is risker than living a rural area. Since the city, Bangkok, is very busy every single day, people in this area has to encounter with traffic congestion, work, study, pollution and stress. These factors will affect to our lives in bad ways and lead to mental healths' problems such as getting sick easily from stress and pressure. However, it is so hard to work and study outside the capital . You can work in the rural area but it is not simply that most people do. Bangkok is the capital and the centre of businesses so it is really difficult to escape. We just have to manage our times such as relaxing, watching movies, working out and doing something else for fun.
ReplyDelete