Why do you think so many people have anxiety these days?

[TitaniasAss]

Or do you think it's just become more recognised? When I was young I remember my mum describing a neighbour as 'living on her nerves' which I think probably meant that this woman suffered from anxiety.

I don't suffer myself, I do get anxious about the things most people get anxious about eg driving test, exams etc but I don't think that's unusual. I work in a secondary school and we have so many children with SEMH and anxiety issues that it makes me worry for their future.

I used to work in a primary setting a few years ago and I can remember an 8 year old telling me that they were having a panic attack because of their anxiety. It was awful to me that a child that young even knew what a panic attack was.

I absolutely do believe that, for teens, social media plays a huge part. Why so many adults?

Capitalism has sold us a story of constant happiness and contentment being 'ideal' and even possible (if we just buy one more thing).
On top of that, younger generations have been sold the same story by social media influencers who are selling them the answer to happiness.

This means that perfectly normal emotions like fear, anxiety, worry, stress, have been demonised and therefore medicalised to find a cure (that can also be purchased from pharmaceutical companies).

Further, the convenient world we live in - whether it's summoning whatever we fancy to the door in 1-24hrs, or finding instant entertainment and answers just by picking up our phones - means younger generations seem to be missing the message that things that matter are hard, and often don't feel great whilst we do them.
Whether it's the interview for the dream job, the exam for our qualifications, the party full of new interesting people, going to the office and grafting for the promotion...it all feels likely anxiety, fear, overwhelm, stress, disappointment, difficulty etc, at some point because it matters.
We seem to have lost that mindset.

Exactly this

I had anxiety in the 80s.

It wasn't diagnosed, nor did I get any help.

I ran away from school a few times because I just couldn't cope. In the run up to my GCSEs I self harmed to try to get out of them because I was convinced I'd do badly.

It's always existed.

As to why there is more now - well, I worked in a school through Covid. A few pupils had friends die. It's not totally surprising they are anxious.

I understand there was an increase in diagnoses etc pre Covid so it can't be all Covid but some is. I have friends who will still not meet up inside because of their anxieties about Covid.

People "lived on their nerves" and popped valium, now its the same thing different label

Because there are so many more abusive people around now than there used to be.

This isnt true. I had corporal punishment in my school. Those teachers would be arrested today.

I think over analysing everything. Not letting kids take risks, fuck up and have to sort out their own shit is part of it.
I rarely got involved with the kids school/issues with friends and just told them to find a way to sort it out. Whereas other parents (in the same issue often) would go on about it for ages. Go to the school, talk about it with their kids for ages, get in touch with the other parents.
I am a bit more of a brush it off and tell them shit happens, some people are idiots and to avoid them.
Also bloody screens. It's so obvious. If you let you kid go on the internet aged 13 for hours and then you're surprised they are rubbish at socialising then you're at fault.

Several reasons. SM has a lot to do with it - we are never 'off'. We are always on call to judgement and comment and able to see what the rest of the world is doing - so it is easy to compare our one life with the lives of everyone we know and feel worried we aren't thin/clever/rich/intelligent/adventurous/stylish enough.

But I also think we don't move enough. Physical activity releases stress. I was not a sporty child but I walked everywhere - a couple of miles to and from school every day, a few miles into town every weekend, always walked to parties, after school activities. It helped me unwind if something was brewing in my mind. I watch school kids near me take the bus a few stops to home when they could easily walk it in 30 mins, and they are brimming with energy and glued to screens. It gets jittery if not released.

People have always suffered from anxiety, they just called it ‘nerve trouble’ instead. I remember my grandmother telling me that she confided in her own father about her anxiety, and he said “I know how you feel, dear, I had terrible problems with my nerves after the war.” He’d been an infantry soldier (a Tommy) in WW1, and probably came home with what we’d now call PTSD.

That said, I suspect anxiety is a bigger problem than it has ever been. The world is insanely overcrowded for a start. In 1900, there were a billion humans. By 1960 that had trebled to three billion. It’s now eight billion. There are too many cars, too many houses, too many people, and too much noise. My nerves are shredded just from driving to Sainsbury’s and back. Add 24 hour news and social media into the mix and it’s no wonder we’re all burned out. The pace of life has increased as well. All we need is for climate change to kick in, so that we’re sweltering through 40 degree summers, and this country will disintegrate.

We’re squeezed into smaller and smaller spaces, and surrounded by more and more noise, and it’s cracking us all up. Last night, for example, I was woken by the screeching and backfiring of one of those stupid boy racer cars. We’re not meant to live this way. We evolved to live in a tribal groups and wander through silent grasslands hunting and gathering. Our fight or flight response was probably triggered once or twice a week. Now it’s being fired several times a day.

Are there? There have always been abusers. There is just increased recognition of abuse now, and what constitutes abuse. Rape being recognised within marriage is relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. ‘Grooming’ is a relatively recent word too, even though it will undoubtedly have been happening for centuries. The only thing that has really changed is our language around abuse and trauma (and mental health), and increased awareness in society of such.

Your personal experience of school (and years ago corporal punishment was the norm) isn’t representative of the rise in people behaving in toxic, abusive ways generally. It’s much much worse now than in the past.

In many ways I think women and minorities are far better off today.

Not true. Society has changed significantly in that respect in the last 50 years.

Totally agree about not letting them take risks. there's a window in childhood and early adolescence, when the brain is primed to cope with new challenges - like travelling alone, being cold, hungry, wet, coming home in the dark etc, or learning to cook with knives and flames. If we don't let children develop the resilience for this stuff, they think they can;t cope with it and anxiety builds.

I think anxiety has been identified as a mental health problem rather than something you should medicate or just get over.
However, school students too anxious to answer questions, walk along corridors, sit with others in canteen, do exams in the same room and leave lessons at the same time as others is reaching a troubling level. Can't sit near a door, can't sit next to a radiator, can't sit near a window. I don't know how they're going to function when they leave school unless some sort of action is taken.

Anxiety is weirdly a defence mechanism. It often kicks in to protect you from deeper feelings, like sadness or loneliness. Those are trickier to feel.

I would agree. Too many children aren't coping, but worse, they're afraid to cope, and some parents are afraid to let them try.

We certainly are. I was a child in the 1960s. It was not only not a great time to be female, it was hellish to be gay or disabled. I remember some of the name calling and the physical intimidation I witnessed.

I'm 60 and suffered anxiety in silence for years. We are the " head down, get on with it " generation. The ones with heart disease and heart attacks from too much cortisol.
As soon as DD22 showed similar "symptoms" of anxiety, I got her to go to the doc and she was diagnosed and medicated. My goodness is she happier... less anxious, less escalating, less catastrophising.

Not sure the old ways were the best ways.

Not so. A constant atmosphere of misogyny and sexism, of overt racism and homophobia existed. The exclusion of those with disabilities., intellectual or physical. That was the norm.
Crude name calling seemed to be part of every day life.

I was a very anxious child and my mum was anxious and her dad, they talked of “nerves”. It’s generational trauma for my family, passed on down and worsened each time.
No anxiety for my kids, because the trauma ended with me. But I wonder how much is generational trauma and a combo of asd and adhd and a world that’s far too loud and bright and fast paced?

I agree it’s also trendy now. It’s ok to be anxious at anxiety inducing events. It’s ok to have fear. It’s ok to feel all these things, it’s natural. It’s when it’s constant that it needs addressing.

We are better off in that we no longer tolerate abuse against us.

That does not mean that people have become less toxic and abusive. It’s a non-sequitur.

I’m firmly of the opinion that as time goes on people are increasingly less well-mannered & polite, more overtly entitled & selfish, and their behaviours therefore increasingly toxic and abusive to others.

Perhaps because expectations are greater.
The internet makes us feel we need to be doing things or are missing out.
Living more simply is harder.

I thought it was quite striking when I was doing secondary school tours how many of them had a mental health/wellbeing room. There is an element that stress can be normal, nerves can be normal but there is a lot of naming, a lot of things that should be normal and need some resilience to crack on with.

Services for people with severe mental health problems are so shit. I don’t think it helps to bring more people into the mental health bucket when services are falling over.

I don't buy the argument at all that life is more stressful now. I wonder at modern writers claiming this, possibly they never did any history at school! I'm pretty sure having a third of your population including animals die around you in less than 10 years during the black death was pretty stressful.
I read a vivid account once of how many people were convinced the world would end in the year 1000. It didn't. I did once observe how an outbreak of hysteria/panic attacks once spread through a school I was was working in. That was linked to some end of the world chatter. So I do believe that anxiety is socially contagious.
What to do about it is another issue of course. I guess we as a country should invest in those things we know help, like exercise and having fun. Free entry to theme parks and a few more Bank Holidays!
I know what made me mentally healthier was going to working 4 day week and more exercise .