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Most destructive acts do not begin with ill intent. More often we are driven by good intentions.
We look for joy, calm, recognition, closeness. But under the pressure of stress our inner compass loses its accuracy. And then even good intentions take us somewhere quite different.

A parent shouts at a child because they want the child to do better at school. A person gets behind the wheel after drinking, not for the sake of a catastrophe, but for euphoria and oblivion. An employee goes years without a vacation, striving for success and stability.
The goals are good. But the course drifts. Instead of growth comes burnout, instead of closeness, fear and distance, instead of relief, tragedy.

Research shows that under stress people act out of habit and stop noticing consequences (Schwabe & Wolf, 2011). Elevated cortisol weakens the prefrontal cortex, the center of self-control and planning (Arnsten, 2009). In other words, stress not only drains our strength, it changes our route, without our even noticing.

This holds true on both the individual and the social level. A person can justify their destructive behavior without noticing how it leads to tragedy. In the same way, a society can sustain or even encourage destructive patterns, making stress part of the norm.

On the global level we may have no chance of influencing the situation. All the more so since the modern agenda often works to increase stress, through manipulation, stoking anxiety, creating a sense of threat and scarcity. But we do keep a real possibility of managing our own stress and not passing it on. This shows up in simple things: not writing an angry comment, not honking irritably at the car ahead at a traffic light, being more patient with other people’s mistakes. Small gestures lower the level of tension around us and make the space safer for everyone.

Managing stress is not a luxury or a privilege. It is a necessity if we truly want to move where we intend to go, rather than end up at a point where tension has quietly led us.
But it is important to remember: managing our own stress is not a panacea. We cannot relieve the tension of the whole world, and we should not turn care for others into self-sacrifice. What is needed here is a sensible balance: compassion for others must be combined with care for ourselves. Only then does stress stop destroying and begin to help us move forward.