Anxiety is the new hysteria

Anxiety, no.

Borderline personality disorder / emotionally unstable personality disorder and bipolar type 2 are over diagnosed in women and very often totally off the mark (in my opinion).

Agreed. However, they aren't the only generation to live through dark and terrible times. My mum lived through the Blitz and saw her own mother blown to pieces amongst other things.

Whilst I believe it is truly wonderful that mental health is now openly discussed and that greater understanding, empathy and enlightenment is constantly evolving, I do think the word "anxiety" is too often applied. It just doesn't do anyone any favours.

We all suffer from anxiety to some degree, it's a natural inbuilt human condition much of which is designed to keep us safe. Some of which is a hangover from our primeval forebears.

We all carry some resentment from childhood, we all hate being in hospital and some people hate walking down the road because they think everyone is looking at them. Where do we draw the line without minimising genuine mental illness?

A cough can be caused by anxiety though. It can be a tic just like sniffing or throat clearing.

I absolutely agree it's the new hysteria in many cases. The difference is hysteria was not at all real while anxiety is very real for some.

That wrong diagnosis is then used to stop a woman getting real medical help they need. It's used by some men to hide their abuse and to get them off the hook when accused of it.

Then there is the group of people who claim it about themselves when actually they are just going through a stressful time in life and feelings of overwhelm or worry are actually normal in that situation and not a medical difference they have.

I'm autistic but was diagnosed with anxiety as a teen. This meant my autism was missed. I was never anxious I was autistic. I was subjected to years of medication that did more harm than good and then abusive partners telling me I'm mad or reading into things because I'm mentally unwell. Even had police and family court assume i cannot tell what is reality because ex really stressed I'm anxious and mentally unwell. Realised I'm autistic when my male child got diagnosed autistic- and now I understand I've not had any mental health issues or problems and am very angry how I lost so many years of my life to misdiagnosis. And I can't even accept things are always improving and we need to move on from the past because my female autistic child is dismissed and treated so vastly different for behaviour that is so clearly autistic while my son never had his autism questioned.

I also could add many stories similar to what others have posted. I know of a mother who died leaving 2 young children around age 5&7 ish because she was dissmissed and given anxiety medication for months when seeking help for persist headaches. She had a brain tumour. Only diagnosed when it was end stages but she had over two years of being dismissed.

I would add functional neurological disease and fibromyalgia to the list of diagnosis that are handed out instead of proper investigation when a dr thinks a woman is just hysterical

So I have anxiety - in that I've been diagnosed, if only by a GP, and have medication for it.

Separate from the general anxiety, I am scared of flying. I did fly once (well twice - there and back again), didn't die but my fear of flying actually got worse. I spent most of the holiday either recovering from the flight there or starting to get increasingly anxious and panicky about the flight back. Not been on a plane since.

There is no ‘anxiety bandwagon’. Younger people have experienced extreme disruptions to their lives at an age when they had not yet developed the kinds of coping mechanisms that adults relied on.

Then there’s the cost of living, the housing crisis, the environmental crisis, the rise of the right wing, and the polarisation of political discourse.

Unless they’re wealthy fascists, young people have a great many reasons to be chronically anxious.

Oh this is such a good comment.
I do think that too many younger people jump on the anxiety bandwagon, it’s become fashionable to do it.That doesn’t mean that some people don’t have real anxiety probs that are ruining their lives, I just wish it was somehow different to over use of it.

I know lots of menopausal middle age women with massive anxiety. Their hormones are nose diving, their kids are leaving home, and some are getting divorced and have serious financial issues. I’ve seen them physically shake at work.

Every one of them gets on with it, and works through it.

A few years ago I was suffering from breathlessness and spoke to a (female) emergency doctor on the phone. Without examination she diagnosed it as a combination of anxiety and allergies and I should buy some otc hay fever tablets.

2 weeks later I had a small heart attack, a few days later i was on the operating table for bypass surgery. I try not to be angry about the initial diagnosis.

Write your own article

You’re talking about feeling nervous. Anxiety can be crippling. When I suffered bad my insides felt like they were being squeezed by a massive fist, I could feel my blood going around my body, every part of me shook uncontrollably. I’d spend whole days trying to kind of breath it away. It’s exhausting and scary.

You don’t understand anxiety.

And more worryingly, neither does your ‘psychologist friend’.

Statistically it is more women who are diagnosed

Agreed.

I was diagnosed with anxiety years ago. When I later lost a lot of weight (% wise) without trying, they'd only really focus on either my anxiety affecting my appetite, or were convinced it was anorexia and body image issues. They wouldn't look into it properly and my BMI is now 15.

I work with young people in a non-school setting. One of them is a 12 yr old female who went to the doctor with a persistant cough and was diagnosed with anxiety and given anxiety meds! I was shocked. Now another member of the group has also developed the same nasty cough 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's a step up from receiving a Fit Note that simply says 'mental health' in terms of opening up a conversation on what we can do as a workplace to help and support someone.

I wanted to say something on this thread... but you've done it better than I ever could @Churchview , thank you... I'm glad to hear your DH is doing better now.

Most people I know who suffer from anxiety are men. I don’t think it is considered to be a female complaint.

@DogInATent

I knew it was a thing but very outdated

Good post. Though I think my issue with the current social construction of menopause is that women themselves appear to be enthusiastically leaning in to a construction of themselves as rage-fuelled, hormonally-driven harpies, rather than addressing social pressures that create situations like overloads of domestic responsibility etc. It risks being a kind of self-pathologisation, rather than looking outside yourself.

Anxiety isn't about 'a scary thing' that you can do. It's not being anxious about an exam or something it's a debilitating condition.

It can be an all consuming, unconscious physical reaction that is as utterly and comprehensively life changing. My DH was taken to A&E twice with anxiety attacks that passers by thought were cardiac arrests. His life (and that of our family) was impacted terribly for years before treatment helped him recover. He is well now thank heavens and the NHS.

There was no 'scary thing' he could do - it wasn't like he was afraid of public speaking or dogs or something.

The scary thing had happened to him (repeatedly) decades before as a child and the anxiety was the delayed, suppressed result of that and it burst out of him like a bubble popping.

I think your psychologist colleague might be talking out of their hat.

Because mostly the scary thing being described is something like speak to a shop assistant or go to a hospital appointment.

In my case at my lowest it was answer the phone.

It's not go bungee jumping without a harness.

Hysteria to me is the pathologising of 'undesirable' female behaviour. So any inconvenient responses to poor circunstances/relationships, or acting in ways that cause some sort of nuisance or challenge to the status quo could be written off as down to hormones and the underlying issues ignored. Anxiety is different as much more likely to be self identified/self diagnosed by people wanting to understand and label their own responses to undesirable circumstances.
A better modern day equivalent to hysteria imo is menopause. As while it's undoubtedly a good thing to understand the hormonal impact on women so better support is available, there does seem to be a culture of veiling social and relationship struggles of older women behind it. So basically, stick a patch on and keep on coping with your excessive workload, overload of domestic responsibility and unsatisfactory relationship.

I think anxiety is personal to different people. I’ll admit I used to be awful, saying it was overused until I properly experienced it along with its good old friend ‘overwhelm’. So I don’t know that it’s not always justified

And before hysteria it was called 'nerves' often just lazy diagnosis. However it's not so very long ago that I went to Dr for joint pain and associated tiredness. GPs first question was about my mental health and would I like some antidepressants, so the crap continues in one form or another. Didn't help my arthritis though