Many report struggling with anxiety, but are we really coming undone?

[[se...]]

You're not presenting a sound argument here, FG, and seem to be repeating an argument often made by people of a particular ideological persuasion.  The first part of what you said is right - isolation is part of the problem.  What is it about having this 3rd world perspective though that would prevent anxiety?  Do you think if people who were raised in less-developed countries were to move and live in Western society as the rest of us do and be subjected to the same life pressures, they would be less anxious?  I don't think you would see that on average.

 

I didn't say that living in a 3rd world country would prevent anxiety. They have their own issues and I am sure they have anxiety. Anxiety is natural. 

 

What I am saying is that if people who live in rich countries were to experience the problems that face people in poor countries they might feel a little different about their problems. Having a hard time paying your student loan would certainly feel insignificant if you suddenly find yourself having a hard time figuring out where your next meal is going to come from.

 

OK this isn't going go anywhere so I'm going to stop responding now.

[[Lo...]]

You're not presenting a sound argument here, FG, and seem to be repeating an argument often made by people of a particular ideological persuasion.  The first part of what you said is right - isolation is part of the problem.  What is it about having this 3rd world perspective though that would prevent anxiety?  Do you think if people who were raised in less-developed countries were to move and live in Western society as the rest of us do and be subjected to the same life pressures, they would be less anxious?  I don't think you would see that on average.

 

I didn't say that living in a 3rd world country would prevent anxiety. They have their own issues and I am sure they have anxiety. Anxiety is natural. 

 

What I am saying is that if people who live in rich countries were to experience the problems that face people in poor countries they might feel a little different about their problems. Having a hard time paying your student loan would certainly feel insignificant if you suddenly find yourself having a hard time figuring out where your next meal is going to come from.

 

Mental illness and addiction don't discriminate. It doesn't really matter what country one lives in or how old one is. In the end, it doesn't matter at all. There is more to the picture than it meets the eye.

[[Fi...]]

California Chef Aims To Help Restaurant Workers Prevent Suicide

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/02/11/687778886/california-chef-aims-to-help-restaurant-workers-prevent-suicide

 

 

 

"This is a place for me (Mulvaney) to help my people," he says. "We are storytellers at the end of the day. And one of our stories is going to be about mental health."

 

"— long hours in a busy environment, casual drug use, and the idea that stress is just part of the job."

 

"What I want is someone to help us figure out how to have these conversations in a productive manner that increases mental health and reduces the stigma, so we talk about it more," he says. "I want it to get better, for everybody. And I maybe want it to get better for myself, too."

 

 

 

 

[[co...]]

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/02/neoliberalism-normalising-hostility.html

 

A little essay about the decline of civility and hyper-individualism via our economic system.

[[se...]]

Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/26/pill-for-loneliness-psychology-science-medicine

[[La...]]

Holy Moly! I haven't looked at the article, but the title has got me slapping my forehead and saying, "What the hell?!"

[[...]]

Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/26/pill-for-loneliness-psychology-science-medicine

 

Asinine!

[[Rx...]]

Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/26/pill-for-loneliness-psychology-science-medicine

 

How about this?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/los-angeles-people-walker-chuck-mccarthy

[[Fl...]]

How about this?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/los-angeles-people-walker-chuck-mccarthy

 

That's pretty aweseome.

[[Te...]]

Scientists are working on a pill for loneliness

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/26/pill-for-loneliness-psychology-science-medicine

 

How about this?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/los-angeles-people-walker-chuck-mccarthy

 

This is wonderful! We need others to lend a listening and nonjudgmental ear, not more drugs!

[[...]]

How about this?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/los-angeles-people-walker-chuck-mccarthy

 

That's pretty aweseome.

 

Yes, and I'd actually thought of how a "rent-a-companion" could serve a real need for people working to overcome agoraphobia, depression, etc.  The companion wouldn't even necessarily need any special training, just a mature, compassionate, solid and reliable person to help the sufferer feel safe and supported.

 

Here's another relevant article I posted recently on another thread.

 

How a wooden bench is starting a revolution in mental health

CNN  October 16, 2018

 

On the Friendship Bench a form of problem-solving therapy aims at the potential triggers of distress and patients are guided toward their own solutions.

Although Friendship Benches are now finding success in cities across the world, the project in rural Zimbabwe still holds a special place for Chibanda. His patient Erica lived and died in the eastern highlands of the country, a place where such services may have saved her life. What if she didn't need to pay the bus fare to Harare? Did she have to rely solely on old-fashioned antidepressants? What if she could walk to a wooden bench under the shade of a tree and take a seat next to a trusted member of her community?

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/health/depression-mental-health-zimbabwe-africa-partner/index.html

 

[[Fi...]]

I recently came across this video commentary which addresses anxiety, young people and suicide. I believe it is pertinent to the OP topic, "Many report anxiety, but are we really coming undone?"

 

I wish I had a transcript to share (I don't) but, it's a very short video with some decent advice, especially for parents/guardians of young people:

 

https://zdoggmd.com/social-media-girls/

 

best wishes

[[Gr...]]

Fi- That is an interesting video.  I don't think cell phones are the whole cause of the problem, but I definitely agree that they are not helping. 

 

 

I can't remember who shared it above, but I just love the idea of that guy out walking people in LA.  Honestly, we need more community groups, outside of religion.  More people just participating in being friendly and caring enough to make a connection with others in their communities. 

[[Fl...]]

Fi- That is an interesting video.  I don't think cell phones are the whole cause of the problem, but I definitely agree that they are not helping. 

 

Technology absolutely contributes to it. Matter of fact that might be the biggest contributing factor in very recent times. Check out the chart in this article. Take note that suicide rates started to climb around 2007-2008, right around the time the iPhone came out and social media started to take off.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/suicides-teen-girls-hit-40-year-high-n789351

[[Te...]]

People are checking out Facebook and Instagram and thinking they're "less than." There's a lot of bullying and too much pressure on teenagers. It's getting to a younger age. 

[[co...]]

Hmmmmm

 

What else happened around 2008?

 

Uhhh, hm, <scratches head> something something *morgages* forclosures...15 million Americans?

As the housing prices skyrocket cuz who bought all those foreclosed homes?  Uhhh...hm...

[[Fl...]]

Hmmmmm

 

What else happened around 2008?

 

Uhhh, hm, <scratches head> something something *morgages* forclosures...15 million Americans?

As the housing prices skyrocket cuz who bought all those foreclosed homes?  Uhhh...hm...

 

The economy has been doing fantastic for a few years, yet suicides are still going up up up. 

 

Try again.

[[li...]]

Hmmmmm

 

What else happened around 2008?

 

Uhhh, hm, <scratches head> something something *morgages* forclosures...15 million Americans?

As the housing prices skyrocket cuz who bought all those foreclosed homes?  Uhhh...hm...

 

The economy has been doing fantastic for a few years, yet suicides are still going up up up. 

 

Try again.

 

Fantastic for whom ? If you own a lot of assets ...

[[Fl...]]

Fantastic for whom ? If you own a lot of assets ...

 

Unemployment in the US is less than half of what it was when it peaked in 2009.

[[Fi...]]

I came upon this article today & thought it pertinent to this post & also perhaps in helping fellow bb in coping with anxiety/fear:

 

"For Kids With Anxiety, Parents Learn To Let Them Face Their Fears"

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/15/711213752/for-kids-with-anxiety-parents-learn-to-let-them-face-their-fears

 

"The first time Jessica Calise can remember her 9-year-old son Joseph's anxiety spiking was about a year ago, when he had to perform at a school concert. He said his stomach hurt and he might throw up. "We spent the whole performance in the bathroom," she recalls.

 

After that, Joseph struggled whenever he had to do something alone, like showering or sleeping in his bedroom. He would beg his parents to sit outside the bathroom door or let him sleep in their bed. "It's heartbreaking to see your child so upset and feel like he's going to throw up because he's nervous about something that, in my mind, is no big deal," Jessica says.

 

Jessica decided to enroll in an experimental program, one that was very different from other therapy for childhood anxiety that she knew about. It wasn't Joseph who would be seeing a therapist every week — it would be her.

 

The program was part of a Yale University study that treated children's anxiety by teaching their parents new ways of responding to it."

.

.

"For instance, when Joseph would get scared about sleeping alone, Jessica and her husband, Chris Calise, did what he asked and comforted him. "In my mind, I was doing the right thing," she says. "I would say, 'I'm right outside the door' or 'Come sleep in my bed.' I'd do whatever I could to make him feel not anxious or worried."

 

But this comforting — something psychologists call accommodation — can actually be counterproductive for children with anxiety disorders, Lebowitz says.

 

"These accommodations lead to worse anxiety in their child, rather than less anxiety," he says. That's because the child is always relying on the parents, he explains, so kids never learn to deal with stressful situations on their own and never learn they have the ability to cope with these moments.

 

"When you provide a lot of accommodation, the unspoken message is, 'You can't do this, so I'm going to help you,' " he says."

.

.

"The parent training seems to work because it lets children confront their anxieties while parents provide love and support from afar, says Anne Marie Albano, a psychologist at Columbia University who did not work on the study.

 

"You coach the child a bit but don't take over. It's helping the child stumble into their own way of coping and ride whatever wave of anxiety they're having," she says. "That ultimately builds their confidence."

.

.

Joseph says he no longer feels anxiety about being alone. He doesn't enjoy it, "but I'm OK with it," he says. He has learned to banish the frightening thoughts that would come when he was by himself and that kept him up at night. "If I get a nightmare, I just change the subject to something happy," he says. "Then I'm fine."

 

New fears come up from time to time — like a recently discovered fear of heights. But with his parents' support, Joseph says, he's learning to face these too. "I think I'll be OK," he says. "I'll just try to do it."

 

 

 

[[Gr...]]

FiAddendum- what a great find.  I love this "alternative" approach to anxiety in children.  As a parent of a 10 year old, this article is very timely for me.

[[Te...]]

Yes, that was a wonderful article!!!  :thumbsup: I hope this is used a lot.

 

 

[[Te...]]

I really wonder, since there are so many powerful drugs and supplements out there, if people don't realize that these all have implications on people's nervous systems. They may feel anxious in quitting the pill or supplement and not realize that they're just going through a period of discontinuation syndrome. So they reach for something, or go to a doctor, requesting something to help calm them down. Of course they're given another pill. This creates havoc on the system and can add to more anxiety.

 

Just wondering, that's all...

 

That's what led me to benzos in the first place. Now I know better, but I wonder how many people are floundering.

[[La...]]

In my opinion, the numbers must be very great, Terry.

[[Fi...]]

I really wonder, since there are so many powerful drugs and supplements out there, if people don't realize that these all have implications on people's nervous systems. They may feel anxious in quitting the pill or supplement and not realize that they're just going through a period of discontinuation syndrome. So they reach for something, or go to a doctor, requesting something to help calm them down. Of course they're given another pill. This creates havoc on the system and can add to more anxiety.

 

Just wondering, that's all...

 

That's what led me to benzos in the first place. Now I know better, but I wonder how many people are floundering.

 

They, and perhaps their doctors, may not realize that it's not a discontinuation syndrome but rather a life-long change in their CNS brought about by the long-term use (more the 2-4 weeks) of a benzo.