The book describes that our brains are not equipped for the amount of stress we face daily. Is it not possible to develop our brains in that area?
‘Your brain is adaptive in part, but the stress response is something that takes a very long time to evolve. To give you a better picture, the brain takes about 10,000 years to change a trait at all. Because changes and developments are so rapid, the brain does not have enough time to cope with the changes.

So our brains have not been developed for some time. So how is it that burnout and depression are on the rise just now?
‘Over the last 200 years, there has been a huge increase in stressors. The human scale that we managed to maintain until the industrial revolution disappeared. Ever since the industrial revolution, developments have followed at lightning speed, but we have not had time to adapt. The digital revolution that began some 40 years ago has added to that.

Why is it that this digital revolution causes us so much stress?
‘First of all, we are taking in more information than ever before. Compared to 20 years ago, there is 20 times more information coming at us every day. We obtain this information mostly at times when we first knew calm: in the supermarket queue or at the train station. Our brains are given millions of stimuli to process all day, without a little break.’

What is our brain’s response to stress?
‘Our brains are actually set to the period before agricultural society, when we were hunter-gatherers. At the time of stress, they give off signals similar to life-threatening situations people used to face: a predator that could eat you at any moment. The physical signals we now experience when stressed – sweaty hands, palpitations – are all things that helped us survive back then by fighting or fleeing. Nowadays they are not good for anything, but because the same substances are produced as in those days, our brains think there is a lion in front of us when in fact we are worried about a difficult presentation.

What can you best compare such a reaction to?
‘Imagine the evolution of man as a car with parts from many different eras. So in addition to the latest gadgets, there are all kinds of old systems in it. One such old system is the alarm system: a red light that lights up every so often for no apparent reason. You know there is nothing wrong with it, yet sooner or later you go to the dealer to have it checked out. He gives you a remedy for it, without having looked very specifically at your symptoms.’

What is that tool a metaphor for?
‘The many drugs and other antidepressants people are prescribed to prevent stress. A whole industry of courses and medications has now sprung up around stress and all its associated diseases. In business alone, the damage from burnout runs into the millions each year, so they do everything they can to get employees back to work. The pharmaceutical industry has brought us good things in that area, but often they don’t look specifically enough at patients’ symptoms, and antidepressants are prescribed indiscriminately, when sometimes that doesn’t provide the right solution at all.

What can we do to become less stressed?
‘First of all, it is good to be aware that you yourself can do something about the stress you feel. Literally, by turning off your phone once in a while and leaving your mail for what it is. But also figuratively, by putting things into perspective. If you want to run away from a presentation, remember that’s because your brain sees that stress as a wild animal. By putting it into perspective, you can easily get the stress off your chest.

That seems easier said than done.
‘Relativization is something you have to learn. With our book, we hope to create awareness by providing background information on the origins of stress. Why are we the way we are? Only when you know that can you begin to put things into perspective. Another way to calm yourself down is mindfulness and controlling your breathing. Other than palpitations and sweaty hands, that’s something you can control.

So what might be another solution besides relativization?
‘We are surrounded by happy people on social media and on talk shows who are all successful. Having a mediocre life seems like the biggest nightmare these days: everyone strives for happiness, and that very striving in turn creates stress. With our book, we also hope to make stress and burnout discussable as something that can happen to anyone. Together with the Mental Health Fund, we created the MIND-Recharge Foudation, a program in which we want to share our knowledge for prevention and awareness with companies.’

The digital revolution will only expand more and more. What are developments that concern you?
‘Generally, it can be said that the number of hours that adults and children spend behind screens is the greatest danger, it only increases our stress. We should give our brain a little more rest and our body a little less, after all, that’s what our brains are still set to do. The next few years will see the shift from screen to virtual reality, where we experience adventures with our brain and our body does not move at all.

Will our brains ever catch up with developments?
‘The adaptive part of our brain shows that it is possible to cope with modern developments, but the question is for how long. Take the high degree of uncertainty in the job market, which is something that is probably only going to get worse. I think we have to accept that our brains are evolutionarily behind, but that means precisely that we have to learn to cope with stress.

From Big Bang to Burn Out is available through Management Book.