The rise of anxiety
All measures are showing that anxiety has increased exponentially since the 1950s. But why? Our expectations on quality of life would be one reason. We are actually far better off than people living in the 1950s but our expectations are growing faster than reality. We are basically never satisfied. A second reason may be choice. Let’s take jeans as an example. In the 1950s you could buy a pair of blue jeans. But now we have thirty different brands and different styles and the pressure to buy the right brand has increased. There is also an increase of uncertainty. In the 1950s you could expect to work for the same company either all your life or at least 20-30 years and then retire with a pension. It is unusual today for anyone to be with same company. Adding to the uncertainty is all the bad news, all the time because we have 24/7 continuous news. Adding to the anxiety is urgency and lack of boundaries. We’ve got to respond to information coming at us and we never get away from the demands that are placed on us. In the 1950s you sent a letter and you could think about what up you were going to say! It was said that the average high school student of 1997 was as anxious a psychiatric patient of 1950s. Invite someone to take a closer at Christ who said don’t be anxious and his church.
