Max is a long time volunteer turned employee for mindyourmind as a Youth Outreach Assistant. He enjoys blogging, cats, and the state of Utah. Check him out on Twitter: @maxamilli

Typically for people who visit big cities on vacation or a business trip, they always come back complaining about how bad traffic is, how crowded the sidewalks are, how noisy it is, etc. What does this say for people who are born and live in these cities? Are they just used to it, or do they hate it as much as the casual visitor. The undeniable truth is that our society is shifting every day into a more urban setting, with buildings and populations getting bigger and bigger by the year. But what does that mean for our mental health?

According to a new report released by Nature states that “mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers and the incidence of schizophrenia is strongly increased in people born and raised in cities.” For people reading this it seems like a natural conclusion, cities are busier, louder, more crowded and can cause people to have to live with these issues. But the fact that cities are growing by the day makes this a growing problem because we can’t just expect this number to keep rising – or even remain the same – because it isn’t natural.

We as people (especially those who live in big cities currently) need to understand the importance of de-stressing ourselves and finding time in order to escape the overwhelming feeling of a large urban sprawl. Taking time to be alone, quiet, away from all of that can do wonders for yourself mentally because it allows you to turn everything off so your mind can rest. What do you do to de-stress and calm down? And how do you think we can curb the problem of big city stress disorders?

See the report here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7352/full/nature10190.html

- Max