Thread: Anxiety

It seems like in the modern day social anxiety is something that's more common than it use to be. Does it just look this way because that sort of thing wasn't as documented or for some other reason? Is there actually more social anxiety now? If so what could be causing a rise is cases?

JA Cambece
JA Cambece Law Office

A flood of detailed violence and a morbid preoccupation with suffering and death (including vivid Hollywood style depictions of same) via mass media entertainment (including news presentations and commercials). Violence of words and deeds, begets violence of words and deeds (fueled by hard drugs), squared. Chain reactionary bullying and one-up-man-ship.

There's more to it than this, but this is largely included among the major causes of social violence and necrophilia. America: entertaining itself by passively watching other people suffer. (More popcorn & cold beer, anyone?) Development of a consumer appetite for destruction equates with a higher gross national product (people in a general state of harmony consume much less than those in a state of chaos, fear and denial.)

Cambece, I have no explanation for which I can offer citations and mountains of evidence. My suspiscion is simple: animals that are prepared for danger survive, those that aren't don't. We were adapted for life in the wild, with relatively few creature comforts. [Our brothers who stayed in the trees had it passably better off: they just weren't successful.]

This situation persists for those in the Third World, where the focus is on walking four miles to collect some dirty drinking water, or work eighty hours to earn a handful of dollars. In those situations anxiety is an unaffordable luxury.

Place relative security, comfort and wealth in the hands of humans, and their expectation of trouble round every corner, translates into neuroses and psychoses.

Originally Posted by That Rascal Puff

A flood of detailed violence and a morbid preoccupation with suffering and death (including vivid Hollywood style depictions of same) via mass media entertainment (including news presentations and commercials). Violence of words and deeds, begets violence of words and deeds (fueled by hard drugs), squared. Chain reactionary bullying and one-up-man-ship.

There has always been violence. I think it is more about the idea of individualality. Instead of thinking like a race we think more like individuals. We want to protect that. So each individual person does so, creating anxiety.

I think the world needs to hit slow-mo for a bit. We go too fast all trying to out do eachother not realizing that we are all here for the same reason. The slower you go the more efficient life is; and the safer it is. When these things happen there is less anxiety. Also, individuals need to take it upon themselves to change this anxiety. They must accept it and then rid themselves of it.

Take it slow.

The funny thing is that while we think like individuals so much of us do the same thing. It is not about being different, it is about being confortable. Do what feels right and you will be yourself. Try to do something new or different every day.

Now I'm just blabbering...

I think the media and the modern society is partially to blame for this issue. Social Anxiety can be trigged by seeing what the typical person should look like, and how they should act. Some people eventually either move on or realize they have a problem, or ignore this problem and it turns into Social Phobia. Completely terrified of social situations.
Anyway thats just my view as a person of this illness.

Dear Alice12:
You speak courageously for many distressed people.
Angst, panic attacks, estrangement, distancing. You have apparently come to terms with these realities as you've experienced them. There are many possible causes, another symptom includes heightened awareness of what most people are desensitized to. You may also have a degree of empathic 'gift', which can vicariously discomfort you via the suffering of others.

That's also a form of what's called 'hypervigilance', that I know of, from DSM IV (Disorders Symptoms Manual IV). That's the source of most of my education in these matters. If you haven't been diagnosed, see if you can arrange it. You may also have PTSD - post traumatic stress disorder.

May the Buddha smile upon You and Yours.

Thankyou =]
I've been diagnosed for almost two years now and I have been seeing a clinical psychology for over a year now, I had my last session 2 weeks ago. I learned that I did have an illness and I had to confront it. Im not sure how much this worked, so im on medications.
For me, I didnt get the illness from the media or any influence. I discovered i'd had it for most of my life. I didn't know any different, I thought it was normal.
Anyway, I don't really want to go on about it =]
But thankyou for your kind comments =]

Originally Posted by alice12

Thankyou =]
I've been diagnosed for almost two years now and I have been seeing a clinical psychology for over a year now, I had my last session 2 weeks ago. I learned that I did have an illness and I had to confront it. Im not sure how much this worked, so im on medications.
For me, I didnt get the illness from the media or any influence. I discovered i'd had it for most of my life. I didn't know any different, I thought it was normal.
Anyway, I don't really want to go on about it =]
But thankyou for your kind comments =]

Noooo, please noooo. Do not take medications. You have already taken the first and most important step. You have understood what the issue is.

You know now that I think about it I probably have a similar issue.:wink:

You have to understand though, this is not a problem unless you find it to be. It seems that you have, which is perfectly fine. Now you need to do the opposite of what you would normally do.

There is a great new movie out called Revolver by Guy Ritchie that illustrates this wonderfully. Think of what gives you the anxiety and simply do that a lot instead of avoiding it ( of course it is not that simple). It seems difficult at first but, the more you do it the easier it becomes. The movie delt with many things but, a great one was clostraphobia. Think of each chance as a challenge to improve yourself.

I am no professional but, I do know that medications are very, very bad. They will not help you at all. It may feel like they do but that is only the temporary effects. Taking medications is like wearing glasses. The longer you do it the worse the issue gets. Please don't do this to yourself. I have heard very bad stories about people on anxiety medication. Talk to your psychologist about this of course. But, please, while it may seem harder without the medicaion it is so much better.

I think of every illness/disorder I get as a challenge and a chance to learn more about myself. Imagine a ways off from now when you have figured out how to deal with your 'problem'. You will have learned so much and lost nothing. You will be so happy!! Medications will not give you any of this.

Please consider.

OH and if you don't mind, can you tell me some of the specific things that cause the anxiety? If you alright with that of course. Please don't if you are uncomfortable with it.

I can see where you're coming from, but I couldn't cope with school, so I was put on medication thats used for schizophrenia, which is basically a sedative, and also antidepressants. I was falling quite behind at school and I was making progress too slowly in therapy, so it was the best option at the time.
Maybe if I was older, and didnt really have a busy life I wouldn't be on medications, I would actually be facing the issue and trying to get through it. I know if I stopped the medications now, I wouldn't be in control of my anxiety.

DaBOB Posted:

OH and if you don't mind, can you tell me some of the specific things that cause the anxiety? If you alright with that of course. Please don't if you are uncomfortable with it.

Well, basically the cause is people looking at me, what people are thinking, what people will think of me. Going out in public is a big issue, seeing somebody I know is terrifying. Same with eating in public in a Cafe or resturant, if I see somebody I know, and what they'll think when they see me eating.
It does sound really silly, but it really is terrifying.
Thats all I really want to say, i'm even getting anxious talking about it, but I trust you all.

That is all I needed to hear.

I am in college and hear lots of things about people on medications for anxiety. It is not as severe as what you ahve to deal with though.

You need to be very careful though. You say your in school and need the medication to pass. Do you think your life will be less busy when you are out of school? I hope I am not causing any anxiety by saying this (although it seems this would be a different type of anxiety).

The example I gave with the glasses being like medication. That is me. If you can't see how can you do anything without glasses right. Yet, wearing the glasses makes your vision worse. I feel you are in a similar situation.

I would like to try to explain something.

I like to think of the mind as having two parts (sort of like freud but two instead of three). The less conscious part which keeps us in line with the norms and gives us a personality. This less concsious part is dangerous. It controls us if we are not aware of it. When I say 'we' I am referring to the conscious mind. I said that the unconcsious mind gives us our personality. Note the word gives. Nothing should give us a personality, we should become our personality.

A doctor gives you medications to 're-balance' whatever chemical imbalance there may be. The problem here is that the chemical imbalance is caused by you. The medications will only suppress the problem for so long. Eventualy you will have to increase dosage and so on. This is because the real problem is not being faced. Your unconcsious mind (or personality) is taking over. Something is comfortable about the state it was in. Obviously, to your conscious mind it was not. You need to learn to take control of this subconscious mind.

Do you have any other habbits, maybe, that you don't like? For example I will sometimes stay up very late doing very unimportant things (computer games, TV, web surfing etc.). The next morning I always regret it, wondering why I did it. What I do to stop this strangly comfortable habbit is simply understand it is there and force myself to sleep earlier. Guess what, the next day I have tons of energy and do not regret anything.

What I am getting at is: If you have any of these little habbits like most of us do (things you do but regret later), you should start by practicing with those. If you can 'fix' a few of these and you start to feel more in control than maybe stop or lower how much medication is being used. See if you can control the anxiety instead of letting it control you. Try to force yourself to not be anxious. Use techniques like slow long breaths. Listen to your heart and try to slow it down by thinking about it. Whatever you may have already been taught.

I understand that you must be having a very difficult time but, I truly believe the sooner you start the better. Although, I also believe it is never too late to start. I will let you be the judge (of course).

Thanks for your advice =]

If you can 'fix' a few of these and you start to feel more in control than maybe stop or lower how much medication is being used

In therapy I was taught how to try and control it and how to change the way I think, I tried quite hard, but I see it as the anxiety as a part of my brain, thats its so far embedded into my brain that its not a part of it.
I cant say I really have many habits, just odd OCD habits which really don't count.

haha everyone has what would be considered "odd OCD habits".

Speaking of OCD. Remember that everything mental and most things physical are completely under your control.

And remember, it is never too late. がんばって。Good luck.

You should post more on this website. I think the internet may help with the problems you face. People may dudge you wrong here (on the internet) but, they don't know who you are so it doesn't really matter.

You're right, they are under my control but I just have to learn how to control them properly :wink:

I think anxiety is curosity but it should be in right direction than it can give happiness.

Remember that medication only masks the symptoms of anxiety and without councelling and in particular, cognative behavioural therapy(cbt) you will be on meds for along time

I believe one reason for the increase of anxiety in society is due to cannabis use in certain individuals(but obviuosly not the only reason)

Also from what i understand, anxiety is a learnt pschological illness and not a mental illness in the same way as say depression or bipolar and can be unlearnt with cbt :-D

It seems like in the modern day social anxiety is something that's more common than it use to be. Does it just look this way because that sort of thing wasn't as documented or for some other reason? Is there actually more social anxiety now? If so what could be causing a rise is cases?

1) increase in video game/internet use

the increase in the use of video games, internet and television causes use to have a shorter attention span, which effects us socially. People minds expect things to stimulate their mind, if it dosn't stimulate their mind they get easier distracted.

also technostress comes with the use of these things. long periods of use of video games or television makes people more edgy, and easily irritable. leaving behavior like this will always manifest into more serious problems.

2) anxiety is in the family

Studies have proven that if a child grows up with a family member who has anxiety problems that child is more likely to have anxiety problems because they learn behavious from their parents,brothers,sisters,grandparents etc. This is not due to genetics, an adopted child brought into a family with a parent who suffers from anxiety stands a much greater chance of learning the parents behavioural patterns.

3) anxiety can be causes by problems parts of the brain.

If your Basal Ganlia, Deep Limbic System, Temporal Lobes (etc) are overactive then you will experience more anxiety than you should. These parts of the brain can become overactive by using them too much. They can be overused due to foods as well. If one eat's alot of sugar it may cause their Temperal Lobe functions to overwork, or underwork.



In the end everyone has their own anxieties. everyone has different things they get anxious about. Left over time anxieties manifest other anxieties. An anxiety is almost always irrational illogical reasoning and is best treated by pinpointing what makes you anxious(1), what thoughts and feelings go through your mind when you get anxious(2), what's irrational and illogical about your anxiety(3), train yourself not to get anxious about these things anymore(4).

using medication does not train a person to conquer new anxieties that come, and medication does not remove all anxieties. using therapy trains a person to be able to control all of thheir anxieties.