Type A behaviour and our lifestyles

 

In 1976, two cardiologists, Mayer Friedman and Ray Rosenman set out to find the different risk factors that can predict coronary heart diseases. After dedicating 8 and a half year on studying patients of age 35 and 59, the two doctors concluded that Type A behavior doubled the risk of coronary heart disease in otherwise healthy individuals.

People with type A behavior are characterized as highly ambitious, competitive, highly organized, impatient, and excessively aware of time management. Type B behavior, on the other hand, refers to being relaxed, easy-going, and less competitive.

Notwithstanding the fair share of criticism, it has invited, the research has had a significant impact in the world of physiology and psychology alike. And I believe that, even if it does not fulfill the standard of a well-thought study, there are things we got to learn from it.

In today’s world coronary heart diseases have met new heights with none of the age groups being an exclusion. Likewise, the arrival of capitalism related values has encouraged characteristics of Type A behavior. More people tend to be competitive, less easy going and are increasingly being diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorders. This correlation urged me into reflecting why we have all been attempting to inherit Type A behavior and what cost are we paying as a result.

The process of industrialization, which offered us Capitalism and the likes of it, was initially very appealing. Life was laborious back then and capitalism seemed to offer a decent solution. However, people miscalculated the potential consequences of this and what seemed like the means to a dream life became a nightmare, we all see every day.

One process that made Type a behavior more attainable, is the stigmatization of free time. People in the past thought highly of people who reflected and pondered. But today’s ambitious world frowns upon it. Be it a child attending primary school or an employee of a multi-national firm, both are enjoined to meet deadlines, be overly organized, stay under surveillance and compete with their counterparts. Although, the Islamic tradition asks us to ponder on the signs of this universe, we hardly have time to do so since sitting in the waiting room for a doctor’s appointment without any device that makes us look ‘busy’ has been stigmatized enough to enjoy free time. And so, free time started being offered with negative connotations attached to it. People began using it to criticize such as remarking a person who is a deep thinker as being too free (yeh to farigh hai) to do anything more worthy than the sacred act of “contemplating”.

Secondly, productivity became the ultimate goal. So, the more you produce, or in other words, the more you mindlessly run under the cycle of earning, buying and selling, the more successful and charismatic you are. This is one reason why words like laziness and indolent, instead of active and agile, became antonymous to productivity. Understandably enough, this idea of productivity, not only predicted competition but enriched in everybody a sense of certainty that we all are, together a part of a race where none of us is aware of the victory line. None of us knows what hurdles we might face and if they are worth being crossed. None of us knows if there is a dead-end ahead or an unbreakable circular loop. Yet we are certain that this is the dream we want to pursue.

Life became fast-moving. The idea of doing things at a decent pace became an old-school conventional practice. Everything started moving with the needle of the clock and a 20-minute recess time replaced lengthy family conversations. One repercussion of it also manifested in terms of an increase in unusual diseases since the career-oriented lifestyle and job-centered mindset reduced the actual amount of time needed for preparing, cooking and eating. From a meal being prepared with carefully grown crops, mindfully chosen ingredients, being cooked with time and dedication and chewed adequate times, to processed food, packed in cans and plastic containers, and heated in carcinogenic microwaves, food has become unhealthily simple.

All of these traits, prevailing at societal level have made us incorporate in ourselves the type A behavioral attributes. And so coronary heart diseases along with many unprecedented and unforeseen biological and psychological illnesses have become widespread. The problem began with us being mindless inheritors of the capitalistic model and submissive followers of the Western dream. We need to step out of the olympics we are foolishly running in and actually come to terms with our real needs and necessities. Let us restart. Let us begin to think.