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?

Yep, a further question would be why do we now see people with a compulsion to disparage other people's medical conditions?

From a teaching perspective, I’d say most don’t have anxiety, they just feel uncomfortable, nervous or a bit stressed in certain situations and don’t like it. Anxiety seems to have become a catch-all phrase to cover all unpleasant feelings, to the detriment of actual anxiety disorder which is a crippling, mental and physical illness.

Modern living / too much time to think about the future and worry. I doubt many people suffered with anxiety 400 years ago when every second was spent trying to survive.

I think, as you say, many adults (mostly women, did have anxiety and, as you say, it was referred to as 'nerves'.

I do recall children with clinical anxiety when I was a child (70s baby). I know when I started teaching (90s) there were no children diagnosed with anxiety in my primary classes. There definitely are now.

I believe that many people think they are supposed to be " happy" all of the time and are never to feel anxious eg about an exam. Life is ups and downs! There is too much labelling of what are really normal emotions and experiences.

Yes, Teachers who think they are Doctors do damage children with mental health conditions. If you fancied handing out diagnoses why didn't you train?

We didn't use to anesthetise young children and babies either, such was the failure to conceptualise them as persons with feelings.

I don't think the world is any more threatening today than when I was a child in the 70s and 80s. We seemed to be under constant threat of nuclear war, there were some large scale nuclear disasters, the Yorkshire ripper was at large and the IRA were conducting bombing campaigns in pubs and shopping centres.

The difference is that there wasn't 24/7 coverage of these things and constant online discussions about them. Plus we lived in larger families generally, without so much geographic separation and all our socialising was done in person. We weren't as lonely.

The absence of "old fashioned" activities which are good for the mind - reading, crosswords, jigsaws, conversation, being bored. All proven to create calm. And then constant hyper stimulation and social media to boot. Would make anyone anxious!

@NuffSaidSam

"The breakdown of communities and community support.
Loss of religion."

I was born in 1957, so my childhood was during the 1960's and there wasn't much community support then. It's a complete myth that in "the olden days" neighbours would pile in and look after your kids, do your washing or cook you meals - all whilst you left your front door unlocked! It didn't happen then any more than it does now. And hardly anyone was religious either. If anything there was less support generally as there were no Social Services or homecare etc.

Not read whole thread so not sure if it’s been mentioned, but I really agree with Jonathan Haidt’s explanation in ‘the anxious generation’. Twofold impact of too much freedom on social media and not enough independence in real world that leads to resilience.
It’s the reason I’ve signed our local pledge for smartphone free childhood for my 5yo.

Of course they would have been anxious but about the present more so than perceived future threats

FFS. 'On trend'. 🙄

I must admit I'm staggered at the sheer number of people suffering from anxiety these days. There is a particular website that I look at from time to time that offers DWP advice to people claiming disability/sickness benefits and I'm not kidding when I say that about 90% of the queries are from people suffering from anxiety or anxiety and depression. I honestly never realised it was such a massive problem.

I think it’s because many people have, for some time now, been raised with absolutely no resilience skills whatsoever. Look at MN - full of parents trying to stop their child experiencing even the tiniest of adverse experiences at all costs, moving heaven and earth, quoting extreme experiences others have been through (“I know a child who was let out to go to the corner shop and was murdered”) to justify their over protection. They lost their shit when a teacher corrects their child’s behaviour too. So is it any wonder they can’t cope with real life

I was an anxious child in the 1970s/1980's. Nobody knew except my own family. I was on Valium. There were probably other children like me, but nobody talked about it back then. I also developed OCD as a teenager and had CBT. My mum was right on the ball about getting me help because my aunt (her sister) suffered with depression, anxiety and agoraphobia her whole life. Anxiety is an absolute bastard. It has always been around, but is better recognised now as the debilitating disorder that it is.

I think, although in many ways life is easier nowadays, in others it isn't. There is so much pressure and expectation around every aspect of life. People are made to feel guilty for all sorts of reasons - things others believe they should or shouldn't be doing. The media and Internet also don't help.

I really doubt that people see you and your daughter as weak and pathetic. I’m so sorry if my earlier message led you to believe this. There’s a clear difference between actual anxiety and normal human emotions- unfortunately a lot of young people and maybe even adults don’t see this.

Wishing you and your daughter all the very best.

I also agree with this. Playing computer games where a child or adult is trying to reach the next level must get the adrenaline going. I don't have any games consoles so it would be interesting to know from adults on here who do, do your anxiety levels go up when playing a fast action game or do you notice it in your teenagers?

Activity, relaxation, being in nature and a good diet helps us to manage anxiety better. We're definitely not doing enough of that as a society.

Well, my mother in law was addicted to tranquillisers. My grandmother was on them for years. My mother was depressed for most of my childhood. I think women in the past were drugged or locked up if they had mental health struggles. Men turned to drink or had nervous breakdowns. I do think people these days seem to view anxiety as a badge of honour and lack resilience though.

Your experience is valid, but your experience is not everyone's experience.

I'm sorry you didn't experience a sense of community growing up. It's a really nice thing to have.

People love a label.

"Having anxiety" is quite a new thing. Being nervous/ being a bit anxious is the old way of describing it.

It is a shame to see so many judgemental and ignorant responses about anxiety. Whilst I think that we have, as a society, adopted an overly medicalised language for our emotions and there are unhelpful implications of that, it does not invalid people’s lived experiences of feeling worried or panicked or scared or anxious or a million other emotions.

As a psychologist I view these emotions on a spectrum, we all feel worried, nervous and stressed from time to time - the way we live is not exactly conducive to positive wellbeing! However there will be people on the far end of the spectrum who experience far more intense and chronic anxiety which leads to impaired functioning and overall suffering. It is just silly to think anyone living with severe anxiety is saying so because it is a ‘trend’. Anxiety has always existed - the fear of what might happen next. There are well documented physiological effects of anxiety, in terms of short term (insomnia, palpitations, shortness of breath) and long term (increased risk of autoimmune disorders, more likely to experience chronic pain, exhaustion from living in ‘threat mode’). It can lead to depression and suicide if not alleviated. More compassion would go a long way.

And it was something that you strove to get over, because it stopped you from doing things. And you needed to get on and earn a living.