Anxiety

The Department of Health & Human Services recently recommended that children ages 8 to 18 get screened for anxiety. Another Government medical advisory group recommended that American adults ages 19 to 64 get screened for anxiety. Each year over 1.2 million Americans attempt suicide.

Before our government starts adding Prozac, like Fluoride, to our drinking water, let’s ask ourselves whether modern life, with all its technology and time-saving devices, has become that much harder than yesteryear, or have we simply become softer? We might further probe whether our “it’s-a-jungle-out-there” mentality reflects healthy survival anxiety or is a sign of new existential angst.

The primary cause of our anxiety is our mortality and the fear of death, followed by big questions like who am I and why am I here?! Closely related is anxiety arising from the uncertainty of not knowing where and how we fit into our society. Do we want equal opportunity or equal results? Should we reward the winner, or give everyone a participation award? Should our military recruiters focus on “inclusion” or identify and attract “warriors?” Do we prefer capitalism’s unequal distribution of wealth or socialism's equal distribution of suffering?

We become anxious when our social norms start to break down; when our right to free speech is threatened; and when we witness the breakdown of our educational and business establishments as their admission and hiring criteria are based more on the race or sex of the candidate than on their intellectual or productive potential. Add to this list financial insecurity due to raging inflation, and no wonder folks are anxious.

I believe maladies such as obesity, alcoholism, and addiction to sex, drugs, and pornography are all symptoms of anxiety. For me, the best antidote to fear and anxiety is faith, family, time spent in nature, meditation, quiet times reading, hot baths, and heartfelt dialogue with close friends. 

We all need to learn to deal with anxiety, or it will kill us.

— Sina.