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

[Anonymous]

There are so many people now with "anxiety" or who are prone to panic attacks. No judgment at all I am just curious as to why. Environmental factors? Cultural and/or societal? Is it a broader scope for diagnosing now or just more people are being diagnosed? It really just seems in the past decade that more and more people have these crippling anxieties. You see more social anxiety as well. Not saying no one had this before, it just seems like so many now. Makes me wonder why.

[Anonymous]

Cry it out sleeping technique.

[Anonymous]

Well, I know that anxiety and depression runs in my family. My grandmother dealt with it in her younger days with cigarettes and booze. I think there is more understanding then 50 years ago and therefore a path for people who struggle to get help.

Modern life and modern parenting is more intense than it ever was. The expectation is to be more hands-on but also to never make a mistake. And it's little things we deal with day-to-day that add up to increased levels of anxiety. Our kids are safer, certainly, so it's worth it. But yeah, dealing with it all on a daily basis...some of us need a bit more help.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Also, things like what happened yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Yes, getting through my day sometimes feels like running a marathon (which I have never done and stress about that I can't)

[Anonymous]

All of the above. Plus never ending slick advertising by Big Pharma to physicians and the public.

[Anonymous]

Poorly compensated people hired to care for babies and toddlers who don't really care about them. I see it every day. If you think it doesn't matter down the road, think again.

Little children need to be loved and well-cared for. Really.

[Anonymous]

Too many choices. Choices are good up to a point but too many are overwhelming. Not enough opportunity. Too many expectations.

[Anonymous]

I think it's information overload. You're constantly inundated with what could go wrong. Take cancer. With Facebook, for example, you hear about all your friends with cancer, plus all their friends with cancer, and your fiends' kids with cancer and their friends' kids, plus just random people raising money for cancer. Then there's advertising for cancer awareness and all those pharm ads for cancer drugs. It starts to feel like everyone has cancer. If you're prone to worrying about your health, there's just fuel being thrown on it all the time. Same goes for anything. You worry about money? Well now you hear about the stock market crashing from 170000 sources.

[Anonymous]

I think more people re talking about it. I also think the ever availability of new, via Internet and 24 hour news channels, feed bad news and sensationalize tragedy after tragedy, you can't get away from it

I suffer from anxiety and it has been the last 3 years I have needed meds and cbt to help. In the 90s I was in the middle of a school shooting and it still haunts me. I was doing well but then my oldest started school, and then they had a lockdown bc there was a nearby shooting and i lost my shit when I couldn't get to DC. So ever since then I've gotten paranoid. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are so many people now with "anxiety" or who are prone to panic attacks. No judgment at all I am just curious as to why. Environmental factors? Cultural and/or societal? Is it a broader scope for diagnosing now or just more people are being diagnosed? It really just seems in the past decade that more and more people have these crippling anxieties. You see more social anxiety as well. Not saying no one had this before, it just seems like so many now. Makes me wonder why.

OP, maybe first, before wondering why more people have anxiety and panic attacks, establish whether it's actually true that more people have anxiety and panic attacks.

[Anonymous]

24-7 news. We Unsubscribed for that reason.

[Anonymous]

Speed of life. Used to be ok to mail a letter, wait 5-7 days for a person to get it. Let them respond, wait 5-7 to get a letter back. Now, we send an email to someone in a different time zone and get pissy if we don't have an answer in 5 minutes without consideration for the fact that the person might be 1) off 2) at lunch 3) working on something else 4) doing any number of other things or 5) that the world WILL NOT END if you don't get an answer RIGHT NOW

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many people now with "anxiety" or who are prone to panic attacks. No judgment at all I am just curious as to why. Environmental factors? Cultural and/or societal? Is it a broader scope for diagnosing now or just more people are being diagnosed? It really just seems in the past decade that more and more people have these crippling anxieties. You see more social anxiety as well. Not saying no one had this before, it just seems like so many now. Makes me wonder why.

OP, maybe first, before wondering why more people have anxiety and panic attacks, establish whether it's actually true that more people have anxiety and panic attacks.

+1 I think there are a lot of people who claim to have anxiety and such when what they really have is the normal worries that most people have. But, it is in vogue to have a therapist and a prescription to Zoloft so you can commiserate with your friends.