6 Minute English / Why are we all so stressed?

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Becca. Worrying about work or exams, War and climate change in the news. It's no wonder that modern life is stressful. What makes you stress, Neil?

Oh, good question. I think not having enough time to do something, that really makes me stressed out. How about you?

Um. When I'm trying to do something that I've never tried before and I'm not very good at it, that makes me feel really stressed.

I find that stressful, too.

And how do you cope with stressful situations, Neil?

Well, I try to slow down, uh, pause, take a breath and think, at some point, probably later today, everything will be okay again. How about you?

Yeah, same. But in my mind, I'm telling myself that, I will be better at what I'm doing. I just need to practise more.

Hmm. Many young people who feel stressed about the modern world use the word overwhelm to describe their feelings. And overwhelm was also the topic of a recent BBC World Service programme, What in the World. Here's Iqra Farooq and Claudia Hammond.