Living in Thailand: Stress Levels

Categorized | Living in Bangkok

Tags | bad stress, exponential stress levels, good stress, Living in Bangkok, living in thailand, rip david carradine, stress

Living in Thailand: Stress Levels

Posted on 04 June 2009 by Mike Behnken

Balancing the Good & the Bad

One of the reasons I chose Bangkok, Thailand to have less stress. I was sick of running around for appointments and working more to pay for the extra cost of living of San Francisco. I was thinking Tokyo or Hong Kong but in those cases I would have to train clients or teach English to pay the rent and bills which adds stress.

The first month it felt great to have such a low stress level. I was really being a lazy bum sleeping for 10+ hours a day and not really doing much. During this second month, I actually became stressed from not having any stress to deal with.

I remember back in psychology 101 in college we talked about eustress (positive stress) and (negative stress) distress. This is the first time of my life that I actually felt the lack of eustress was causing distress.

I always have more website work to do, but it seems like if I don’t have something to do, i.e. a training session at 5pm, I don’t feel any pressure to work on the website at all when I would work on it for 3-5 hours really hard before I had to go in for a training session. As a lifelong procrastinator this doesn’t come as a big surprise.

Enrolling in my Thai language class has caused a little bit of eustress as does having to leave the country to obtain my student (ED) visa. I think establishing a fitness goal and exercising more would be a good way to add some positive stress to my life as an expat here in Thailand but I’m looking for something new????

Stress Levels are Exponential

I truly believe that a change in stress levels is exponential. Even though I would rate my stress level from working and living in SoMa in San Francisco a 6 out of 10 I think my stress levels are incredibly lower being a webmaster of my own website in Thailand.

Living here so far I would rate my stress level 3 out of 10 at the very highest. Six is twice that of 3 but it literally feels like I have 1,000 times less stress living over here. I believe that increased stress levels can have great effects on people.

RIP David Carradine

I just heard the news that famous actor David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel. Preliminary reports suggest he hung himself in a closet. I remember him from the Kung Fu series as well as kill Bill 2 as well as a bunch of B movies.

Why someone would consider suicide is a great mystery but it obviously has to do with one form of stress or another. Someone who has all the money in the world like Carradine’s stress has to be different than the average Joe which makes it anyone’s guess what lead him to kill himself. I think there is a 0% chance that he hung himself because of high stress levels from being in Bangkok Thailand though.