Why are there so many people with "anxiety" these days? Serious question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have anxiety because it is so hard to live a fake life. I don't want to be a human. I don't like humans. I wish I had been born an ant or better yet not born at all. My whole life is fake. My friends I don't like, the things I do I don't like. Some days I loose it. Recently while I was driving I just started screaming at the top of my lungs " I hate scrapbooking " I wish I was never born but I didn't get that choice. So yes I have anxiety but I think I hide it enough,

Please get some professional help.

The PP above you spins a tale good enough to fool you. It is a parody of anxiety.

NP here. Are you the original pp? If so, you should work on both empathy and your writing skills. If a parody, both are definitely lacking.

[Anonymous]

I'm an educator. I was in a training on behavioral disorders a few years ago, and there was a section on generalized childhood anxiety. I checked every one of the symptoms...for myself as a child. After the training, I called my dad (who's a psychiatrist) and asked him, if I had all of these symptoms, why was I never diagnosed? He answered that when I was s kid, they just didn't know yet that children could have anxiety.

(I was diagnosed as an adult when I began to have honest-to-God panic attacks at work and in other spaces, and went on Zoloft for a while. I'm of of it now, and doing just fine.)

So, yes, I think it may be a combination of our fear-mongering society and new rates of diagnosis/willingness to talk about it.

[Anonymous]

A lot of good research shows that people have not changed, but (1) awareness of anxiety (and other social) conditions has improved so it is better diagnosed now; and (2) anxiety issues used to be diagnosed differently as depression and/or plain old craziness (POC). You can imagine that if you were someone who struggled to function in life due to severe anxieties, you would fail miserably (such as being semi-homeless because you could not work or maintain relationships) and would get depressed because you knew better but could not stop it.

[Anonymous]

I think it's just the fast pace of life and lack of friends and difficulty in making friends as an adult. I noticed after going to therapy I feel amazing. I realize I just enjoy having an in depth conversation with someone. I moved here from another state so I don't have any nearby friends to spend time with. Also I grew up in a really rural area where life was slow paced and relaxed. People didn't really care about having big houses, fancy cars, etc. DC is the complete opposite so there is more pressure to make money here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expectations of our roles and the cost of everything has gone up. Companies have downsized and workloads have increased, our commutes are longer, childcare is very expensive, buying a home is nearly impossible in some areas, the sport mentality in this country is beyond ridiculous - not every child is going to be an Olympian!, our parenting expectations - I could go on and on. Life isn't as easy and slow as it once was.

Yes, life isn't as easy and slow as it once was, in the good old days, for example the Great Depression, when 1 in 4 workers was unemployed, a lot of people had medical conditions related to malnutrition, life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women due to high infant mortality, and millions of people left their homes.

INteresting you bring up great depression - did you know that for poor white women, life expectancy has regressed from 20-25 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some examples I'm thinking of how modern parenting is intense:

Raising young kids away from extended families, thus having to always seek out new trusted babysitters.

Then infant sleep...baby only falls asleep in clear death traps (like on her tummy) but you can't let that happen so you stay awake monitoring.

Car seats/boosters beyond age of 2. Makes logistics of traveling by air, or carpooling more complicated than it once was.

Leaving kids in the car for quick errands...my mom did it all time when we were young. Cracked the windows and left the radio on.

Then they get to school and it's homework starting in K, testing starting in 3d grade. The classroom isn't really set up for all learners, so advocating for your kid becomes a full-time gig.

All this happening at the same time more mothers remain in the workforce and but our country has failed to enact any meaningful accommodations for working families.

Great post. These restrictions turn everything into an issue. Well, I need to run a few errands but getting kids into and out of the car multiple times will cause meltdowns so I can't...and then there's no family nearby so no one can help when we have busy work weeks and need to get child to sports practice. Then you stress about what childcare option is best, is my child actually learning in elementary school and how much do I have to do at home when all he wants to do is play...it's a million little things all the time. And the judgements from others!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's just the fast pace of life and lack of friends and difficulty in making friends as an adult. I noticed after going to therapy I feel amazing. I realize I just enjoy having an in depth conversation with someone. I moved here from another state so I don't have any nearby friends to spend time with. Also I grew up in a really rural area where life was slow paced and relaxed. People didn't really care about having big houses, fancy cars, etc. DC is the complete opposite so there is more pressure to make money here.

The lack of close friendships is a big issue for me too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some examples I'm thinking of how modern parenting is intense:

Raising young kids away from extended families, thus having to always seek out new trusted babysitters.

Then infant sleep...baby only falls asleep in clear death traps (like on her tummy) but you can't let that happen so you stay awake monitoring.

Car seats/boosters beyond age of 2. Makes logistics of traveling by air, or carpooling more complicated than it once was.

Leaving kids in the car for quick errands...my mom did it all time when we were young. Cracked the windows and left the radio on.

Then they get to school and it's homework starting in K, testing starting in 3d grade. The classroom isn't really set up for all learners, so advocating for your kid becomes a full-time gig.

All this happening at the same time more mothers remain in the workforce and but our country has failed to enact any meaningful accommodations for working families.

Great post. These restrictions turn everything into an issue. Well, I need to run a few errands but getting kids into and out of the car multiple times will cause meltdowns so I can't...and then there's no family nearby so no one can help when we have busy work weeks and need to get child to sports practice. Then you stress about what childcare option is best, is my child actually learning in elementary school and how much do I have to do at home when all he wants to do is play...it's a million little things all the time. And the judgements from others!

And frankly, social media and web forums like this where people feel free to criticize you because you are just a bunch of words on a computer screen and not a human. The value in terms of advice here is dubious at his point since 99% of threads devolve into a screaming match about whose opinions are best.

[Anonymous]

More moms working outside the home means less time for valium and 'cocktail' hour to help get you through the days.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was the most happy child I know....until she went to high school, where she was told by teachers, other students, etc, how if she didn't do X, Y, and Z at super-human pace, she would essentially amount to nothing. No amount of conversation with my husband and I could convince her otherwise; she was simply surrounded by it.

When I went to the school coffees and meetings and saw it for myself, I was pretty disgusted. When the principal would talk about stress-reduction classes, I asked him why they simply didn't change the way they taught, so stress was reduced. I got a blank stare.

What our kids don't realize is they are being used to make adults look good in their jobs, to raise the rankings of colleges, to get additional funds for the schools, etc. Combine that with an area of the country with some of the most competitive, snobby adults in the nation, and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some examples I'm thinking of how modern parenting is intense:

Raising young kids away from extended families, thus having to always seek out new trusted babysitters.

Then infant sleep...baby only falls asleep in clear death traps (like on her tummy) but you can't let that happen so you stay awake monitoring.

Car seats/boosters beyond age of 2. Makes logistics of traveling by air, or carpooling more complicated than it once was.

Leaving kids in the car for quick errands...my mom did it all time when we were young. Cracked the windows and left the radio on.

Then they get to school and it's homework starting in K, testing starting in 3d grade. The classroom isn't really set up for all learners, so advocating for your kid becomes a full-time gig.

All this happening at the same time more mothers remain in the workforce and but our country has failed to enact any meaningful accommodations for working families.

Great post. These restrictions turn everything into an issue. Well, I need to run a few errands but getting kids into and out of the car multiple times will cause meltdowns so I can't...and then there's no family nearby so no one can help when we have busy work weeks and need to get child to sports practice. Then you stress about what childcare option is best, is my child actually learning in elementary school and how much do I have to do at home when all he wants to do is play...it's a million little things all the time. And the judgements from others!

And frankly, social media and web forums like this where people feel free to criticize you because you are just a bunch of words on a computer screen and not a human. The value in terms of advice here is dubious at his point since 99% of threads devolve into a screaming match about whose opinions are best.

This forum is so interesting and I mean in a 'bug under a microscope' way. You can practically feel the contempt for others through the keyboard. I have never met so many arrogant people as I have in this area. People here actually think they are better than others. It's kind of sad, actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expectations of our roles and the cost of everything has gone up. Companies have downsized and workloads have increased, our commutes are longer, childcare is very expensive, buying a home is nearly impossible in some areas, the sport mentality in this country is beyond ridiculous - not every child is going to be an Olympian!, our parenting expectations - I could go on and on. Life isn't as easy and slow as it once was.

Yes, life isn't as easy and slow as it once was, in the good old days, for example the Great Depression, when 1 in 4 workers was unemployed, a lot of people had medical conditions related to malnutrition, life expectancy at birth was 58 for men and 62 for women due to high infant mortality, and millions of people left their homes.

INteresting you bring up great depression - did you know that for poor white women, life expectancy has regressed from 20-25 years ago?

Yes, life expectancy for white women who did not graduate from high school is now 73, which is still longer than the overall life expectancy for women in 1930.

Life may have been slower, but it wasn't easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some examples I'm thinking of how modern parenting is intense:

Raising young kids away from extended families, thus having to always seek out new trusted babysitters.

Then infant sleep...baby only falls asleep in clear death traps (like on her tummy) but you can't let that happen so you stay awake monitoring.

Car seats/boosters beyond age of 2. Makes logistics of traveling by air, or carpooling more complicated than it once was.

Leaving kids in the car for quick errands...my mom did it all time when we were young. Cracked the windows and left the radio on.

Then they get to school and it's homework starting in K, testing starting in 3d grade. The classroom isn't really set up for all learners, so advocating for your kid becomes a full-time gig.

All this happening at the same time more mothers remain in the workforce and but our country has failed to enact any meaningful accommodations for working families.

Great post. These restrictions turn everything into an issue. Well, I need to run a few errands but getting kids into and out of the car multiple times will cause meltdowns so I can't...and then there's no family nearby so no one can help when we have busy work weeks and need to get child to sports practice. Then you stress about what childcare option is best, is my child actually learning in elementary school and how much do I have to do at home when all he wants to do is play...it's a million little things all the time. And the judgements from others!

And frankly, social media and web forums like this where people feel free to criticize you because you are just a bunch of words on a computer screen and not a human. The value in terms of advice here is dubious at his point since 99% of threads devolve into a screaming match about whose opinions are best.

This forum is so interesting and I mean in a 'bug under a microscope' way. You can practically feel the contempt for others through the keyboard. I have never met so many arrogant people as I have in this area. People here actually think they are better than others. It's kind of sad, actually.

It's not just DC. It's everywhere. People from all over comment on this board. It's a myth that people from other regions of the country are somehow nicer. They are not. They just fake it to your face more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some examples I'm thinking of how modern parenting is intense:

Raising young kids away from extended families, thus having to always seek out new trusted babysitters.

Then infant sleep...baby only falls asleep in clear death traps (like on her tummy) but you can't let that happen so you stay awake monitoring.

Car seats/boosters beyond age of 2. Makes logistics of traveling by air, or carpooling more complicated than it once was.

Leaving kids in the car for quick errands...my mom did it all time when we were young. Cracked the windows and left the radio on.

Then they get to school and it's homework starting in K, testing starting in 3d grade. The classroom isn't really set up for all learners, so advocating for your kid becomes a full-time gig.

All this happening at the same time more mothers remain in the workforce and but our country has failed to enact any meaningful accommodations for working families.

Great post. These restrictions turn everything into an issue. Well, I need to run a few errands but getting kids into and out of the car multiple times will cause meltdowns so I can't...and then there's no family nearby so no one can help when we have busy work weeks and need to get child to sports practice. Then you stress about what childcare option is best, is my child actually learning in elementary school and how much do I have to do at home when all he wants to do is play...it's a million little things all the time. And the judgements from others!

And frankly, social media and web forums like this where people feel free to criticize you because you are just a bunch of words on a computer screen and not a human. The value in terms of advice here is dubious at his point since 99% of threads devolve into a screaming match about whose opinions are best.

This forum is so interesting and I mean in a 'bug under a microscope' way. You can practically feel the contempt for others through the keyboard. I have never met so many arrogant people as I have in this area. People here actually think they are better than others. It's kind of sad, actually.

It's not just DC. It's everywhere. People from all over comment on this board. It's a myth that people from other regions of the country are somehow nicer. They are not. They just fake it to your face more.

No. It's really not everywhere. I spend a lot of time other places in the US and trust me when I tell you this area has a special kind of asshole.

Go to Bethesda Farmer's Market on a Sunday. I've never seen so many self-absorbed people in my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No. It's really not everywhere. I spend a lot of time other places in the US and trust me when I tell you this area has a special kind of asshole.

Go to Bethesda Farmer's Market on a Sunday. I've never seen so many self-absorbed people in my life.

Any farmer's market with the same demographics as the Bethesda farmer's market will have the same proportion of self-important people.