When Anxiety Becomes a Commodity: Is There Anything Wrong with That?

Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state characterized by tension, worry, and unease. It can dominate our thoughts, limit our cognitive resources, and make us navigate through a dense fog of overpowering, dark forces. Unlike fear, which is linked to a direct, identifiable threat allowing for an appropriate response, anxiety is triggered by the invisible, making it unwelcome and exhausting. The autonomic nervous system’s reaction to perceived threats initiates a series of physiological processes briefly termed “fight or flight.” This response increases heart rate, dilates pupils, accelerates breathing, and tenses muscles. The primal part of our “self” sends a clear signal that “something is wrong.”

An Anxiety Epidemic?

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issues in the United States, affecting 40 million Americans (19.1%). Globally, 4% of the population suffers from these conditions. The American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), includes Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, and various phobias among its classifications.

There is growing awareness in societies that mental disorders such as depression and anxiety are treatable and should be addressed. Nevertheless, only approximately 44% of those afflicted receive professional help. Recommended treatments include pharmacotherapy (anti-anxiety medications) and, primarily, psychotherapy, which attracts an increasing number of patients each year.

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How to Escape What Cannot Be Seen?

Unlike fear, anxiety often arises without a clear cause, as seen in Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The sufferer experiences an unpleasant state known as free-floating anxiety. The accompanying bodily reactions are difficult to control because they are generated by the autonomic nervous system’s activity. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that such tension is caused by unconscious internal conflicts resulting from the interplay between the id and the superego on the ego. Psychotherapy, therefore, allows for the discovery and understanding of hidden mechanisms, which, over a prolonged process, leads to the improvement of the patient’s condition.

Lack of understanding of the problem faced by individuals with anxiety exacerbates the disorder, often leading to secondary depression.

How Do We Cope?

In highly developed societies, mental disorders are no longer taboo, though visits to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist can still be highly stressful and embarrassing experiences. Notably, among men, there is a significantly lower rate of seeking professional psychological help. Cultural demands that men be strong often lead them to prefer self-management, and if they do seek help, they opt for quick and simple solutions. Unfortunately, these can lead to counterproductive paths, such as addictions to alcohol and psychoactive substances.

In the age of the internet, which offers countless “quick fixes,” methods that are hard to call therapeutic unfortunately rank very highly.

Anxious Followers

It is no secret that if something is free, we are the product. This principle applies when innocently browsing posts and stories from favorite Instagrammers or TikTokers. Following people who post content interesting to us on the internet is not inherently wrong. After all, the internet has become an arena, stage, and publisher where everyone can present their creativity or life ideas to the world. However, the problem arises when online users look for diagnoses and treatments.

“Five steps to…” or “overcome depression in thirty days” are catchy marketing slogans with the potential to attract individuals unaware of the seriousness of their condition. As a supplementary, lifestyle guide, such content is harmless, but when it replaces professional help, it may lead individuals with problems to settle for online “good advice,” which, at best, will not bring the desired improvement, and at worst, can lead to a critical deterioration of the patient’s condition.

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Online Support Groups

Fortunately, well-known and influential individuals are increasingly sharing their experiences with mental health challenges. They openly discuss their moments of weakness and times when life seemed overwhelmingly burdensome. They highlight how professional help played a crucial role in addressing their issues. However, there can sometimes be an impression that being in a therapeutic relationship, thus engaging with a psychotherapist, is a prerequisite for social acceptance. Anxiety and depression often become intangible objects with which teenagers identify.

Educated by online forums, they fluently use acronyms like GAD, OCD, or PTSD. Unlike their parents’ generation, visiting a psychiatrist is not a source of shame but the norm, or rather, a part of the daily lives of today’s teenagers. Conversations about mental disorders often become topics of gossip in school corridors, and teenagers searching for their identity easily adopt masks given by online idols. They often identify with symptoms to such an extent that it requires a truly thorough interview and significant clinical experience to differentiate between a normative crisis and a developing or ongoing mental disorder, or a shift towards personality pathology.

Does Illness Absolve Responsibility?

Talking about problems helps. It not only liberates and eliminates feelings of overwhelm and loneliness but also allows for the sharing of experiences, bringing relief when “others feel the same way” and “it’s not just me who is wrong.” A controversial assertion counter to these benefits is that sometimes being ill is quite convenient. Every developmental stage presents challenges. Life is punctuated by normative crises, experiences everyone must go through to reach maturity.

Adolescence is one of these periods. It is then that the resolution of the Oedipal complex occurs (identification with the same-sex parent), leading to independence. Autonomy means not only freedom but also responsibility. In an era of pleasure-seeking, responsibility is not an attitude everyone wishes to adopt. Transitioning to a new developmental stage, following adolescence, usually involves starting a job, often forming a family.

Either way, it requires making significant, sometimes risky decisions and a great deal of courage. Unfortunately, this courage is often lacking. It is easy then to resist even the best therapy, and the prospect of recovery, beyond hope, triggers secondary anxiety and questions like “if I am fully capable, will someone still care for me,” implying “will someone still love me?”

Monetizing Health

Anxiety serves as a clear signal that it’s time to finally take care of both body and soul. And if we are to draw inspiration from online idols, let it be those who adopt a holistic approach to the individual. Corpus versus anima, body against soul, or id versus super ego. The entirety of human existence will always be fraught with conflicts.

The inner world of a person is a reality limited only by our own consciousness. There are doctrines suggesting that total “enlightenment” is achieved only after death. However, here on Earth, we can embark on a journey into the depths of ourselves. It is sometimes worth taking the risk.

Translation: Klaudia Tarasiewicz