ARE WE LIVING IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY?

We are all anxious from time to time. It’s a natural emotional response to things which threaten us. But sometimes, things spiral out of control and we have an exaggerated, unhealthy response. 

Research shows that we are more likely to experience anxiety if a parent suffers from it. A childhood involving trauma can also have a big impact, with neglect, physical or emotional abuse, the death of a parent and social ostracization all coding for anxiety later in life. 

Adolescence places more demands upon us than ever. Changing bodies and high pressure lifestyles engulf teenagers on social media and there is no let-up in school where our data-driven education system monitors our performance more assiduously than ever.

By the time we emerge blinking into adulthood we are expected to become expert jugglers overnight, never missing a beat as we balance the three spinning plates of work, love and money. 

UK psychiatrists agree that between 10% and 30% of the UK population suffer from anxiety at any one time and one in three of us will experience anxiety at some point in our lives. In the USA there were 46.3 million prescriptions for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax as far back as 2010. For each of us, the experience is unique and “monumentally subjective,” in the words of Daniel Smith, the author of ‘Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety.’