Why Is Anxiety More Common Now?

I often find myself asking this question- has the rate of people suffering from anxiety increased over the years or is it just that people are now more aware of it and hence more willing to speak up about it. Having suffered from anxiety myself, I am very curious to know what is causing this increased anxiety in our generation  and what are some ways we could try to lower it.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a huge part of our generation and although it helps us stay connected and makes us more aware about what is going on around the world, it can be a very likely cause of anxiety.  We are all well too aware of how addicting social media can be. Scrolling through our Instagram/Twitter/Facebook feeds day and night can quickly turn in to a vicious cycle of constant comparison and feeling like we aren’t good enough  Comparing our real lives to those  perfectly filtered photos of relatives/celebs on luxurious weekends having the time of their lives can most certainly start to take a toll on us. We might feel like we are not good enough or that our lives aren’t as amazing.  This type negative thinking only make things worse. Also, the lack of face to face interaction that comes about from excessive social media usage could also be harmful sometimes. I believe it is always a good idea to have a little social media detox and keep yourself in tune with what’s going around you rather than living your life through a screen!

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s always good to set your yourself big goals however living in a generation where the phrase ‘you can be anything you want’ is used so much, it’s hard to not feel the pressure. Compared to older generations, we are a more goal oriented generation; we want to follow our dreams and passion and pursue a not only successful but also a fulfilling career. Although this is a good thing, it can be stressful if your goals are harder to reach and even so when failures are seen as a sign of incompetencey or weakness. Failure goes hand in hand with success and many times we feel like giving up when things don’t seem to be going our way which again can cause anxiety. It is important to know that success won’t come to you in one day. It can take years of hard work, patience, experimenting and so ‘following your dream’ can sometimes be easier said than done.

AWARENESS ON ANXIETY

It’s so great to see how a once taboo topic is now openly and freely talked about. Perhaps the increase in awareness on mental disorders such as anxiety has allowed more people to admit their struggles and seek help instead of suffering in silence. That could be why it seems that anxiety is more common now but in reality these mental disorder were just unknown in the previous generations.

What do you think? Is today’s generation more anxiety-ridden than the ones before us? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

*I am no expert on anxiety- this is just me expressing my thoughts and opinions on it from what I think and from what I’ve researched online. Please don’t take anything I have mentioned in this post in a negative way or if I have mentioned something you don’t agree with, feel free to let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading xx