Societal Anxiety
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Some News
And welcome back to the rambling randomness that is this blog. I may have been a bit too ambitious when it comes to posting…turns out I’m not quite as prolific as I believed myself to be. And that’s fine. Instead, moving forward, I’ll be posting as I’m able. But! The good news is that I will also be posting more on Facebook and other social media platforms as Strong Foundations which will be smaller snippets of randomness. Hopefully that’ll feed your need for randomness enough in between bigger posts. Speaking of bigger posts, let’s get on to the main event.
Societal Anxiety
Yes, you read that right, no, I did not mean Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), today’s topic will be something that’s not often mentioned but that permeates every part of your day; societal anxiety. Not exactly a coined term, Societal Anxiety (I’m not claiming dibs, but credit where credit is due) is a concept that is alive and well in each of us to some degree or another. You may not actively recognize it, but I would bet that you’ve felt it a time or two without quite being able to put your finger on it. Or maybe you’ve never noticed it. Either way, it’s out there and it helps to know what it is.
What It Is
You’ve very likely heard the term anxiety tossed about, and that’s fair, everyone feels anxiety at some point or another. But rarely do people really think more about that feeling than to notice what it’s tied to. That feeling is, generally speaking, an indicator of uncertainty. Humanity has had to survive in the wilds for most of our history and has had to survive in towns and cities for the rest of it, which is to say, that humanity has had a good reason to pay attention when there is uncertainty and being prepared to meet whatever is on the other side of that uncertainty is almost always better than being surprised by it. So, our body learned to warn us of things and allow us to prepare ourselves for whatever uncertainty might bring. At its most fundamental, anxiety is a warning system that has become conditioned to an almost automatic response. Which is why, if we’re not paying attention or if we aren’t able to slow down enough, we can often miss the signals. But your body knows and can and will react to that anxious warning with or without your consent.
The good news about anxiety and the warnings it brings is that it is a feeling, which means we can learn to recognize it. And once we can learn to recognize it, we can learn to identify the sources and be better able to prepare thus reducing how long our body remains in an anxious state. That’s anxiety in a nutshell.
So then, what is societal anxiety? Well, so glad you asked. Societal Anxiety is both the collective uncertainty of a given society (which you can define as you like) and the effect that that general sense of unease creates on the individuals who make up that society (personal definition); for today’s purposes we’ll be talking about the American society as a whole (yes, I know it’s much more regional than that, but there are some things that tie us all together). Let us use, for an example, the threat of nuclear winter that the United States lived under for decades through the Cold War and on through today. Most people would not likely have thought about the concept except when reminded about it or if there was something going on that increased the risk of that event actually happening. This is a natural response; there are too many things going on in the world and we can’t know them all (even if your favorite relative likes to pretend) and nuclear winter is not something we can really do much about anyway. So, we file the information away and interact with it as prompted or when our early warning system gives a little reminder that something’s going on that might be related to the threat of extermination that might be related to nuclear winter.
That’s a lot of mights, it’s also one of the many reasons why we (humanity) find written instruction and specialization attractive; we learn well and if we’re uncertain (anxious) about something we are able to go to that instruction (written) or instructor (specialist) to learn how to best prepare to do that thing. Over time, our environment became more crowded and louder and in a general sense, much faster paced day to day, which creates a lot of variety and a lot of uncertainty. With these new inputs, many of our early warning systems got quieter so that we can continue to operate and stay safe. In today’s world especially (and we’ll get to why), society is currently at its most complex point in history and as a natural result is much more intertwined and visible than it has ever been before. Which naturally means that there are so many more points of uncertainty than there’s ever been for any society, let alone one as big as the United States.
Now, we’ve defined anxiety and differentiated it from societal anxiety, and we’ve begun exploring the context in which we find modern day US society utilizing an historic example that continues to today (nuclear winter). And all of this is necessary to understanding how you, personally, are affected by societal anxiety.
What It Do
So now that you know what it is (reference above as needed); what does it do? Well, a lot and not much all at the same time. For example, it can influence music and trends, create a national policy and unite a country together, it can be capitalized upon and utilized for any number of purposes, but what it cannot do is direct those purposes itself. It can also be a self-fulfilling prophecy of catastrophe, as anyone with an anxiety disorder can attest to. There is also the other side of that coin, how that societal anxiety affects people.
Even if Societal Anxiety can also be a force, first and foremost it will always be a reflection of its society. Because of that reflective nature, the sources of unease are always shifting. What was comfortable knowledge before can all of a sudden shift to create a sense of uncertainty. And what used to be routine or commonplace can all of a sudden become unfamiliar and threatening. And so, defining the entirety of the concept is impossible and instead we must make due with the evolving nature of those sources and seek to reidentify them so that we can better prepare.
And this is where the personal comes in. Every single one of us have a unique and distinctly personal experience. Sure, there are themes and concepts, societal rules and other things that are shared in common. But the truth of the matter is that no two people will ever be able to fully understand any other person in the exact same way. This, of course, also leads to people experiencing societal anxiety in their own uniquely personal way. But generally, societal anxiety is going to be expressed as a general sense of dread or a bad mood, or additional worry, or maybe even a gut feeling; some thing is coming and we can’t figure out from where or what. A disquiet that’s only barely perceptible but that will influence everything you do from the choices you make at the grocery store to activities you choose to participate in.
So What
Now you know what Societal Anxiety is and what it can do but what I may not have explained is how it presents in today’s society or what people can do about it. Earlier, I made the point that society is at its most complex and its most uncertain. Given everything we’ve learned, it makes complete sense that our sense of disquiet and anxiety is increasing. There is more uncertainty now in the United States than there has been since the Civil War on an institutional level, let alone the technological arms race and the various real wars going on across the world. The world is changing, it always does, but it’s changing in a way that seems shocking and sudden and that change brings an increased sense of uncertainty from all kinds of directions. It does not help that the general societal anxiety is added to by news organizations and other media catastrophizing every event not to mention the unprecedented nature of the most recent presidency and the sheer number of lies creating chaos and even more uncertainty.
That uncertainty adds to the ever present societal anxiety in a self-sustaining loop that is then felt more often and from different places leading to an inconsistent feeling of disquiet and unease that seems to come from nowhere. In fact, you may have noticed that you can’t quite get comfortable anymore, or maybe things you used to like are bothering you now. Perhaps you avoid things you used to do because it’s too much bother. These are all signs that you are feeling a possible effect of societal anxiety and as a result are feeling insecure in other areas of your life leading to searching or restlessness. The effects are compounded by poor decision making, but since you’ve never been in this position before you may not even know what good choices are.
And so, therein lies the importance of understanding Societal Anxiety even if we don’t really have the power to directly change or effect it, knowing. And knowing is half the battle because once we know, we can fix or at least alleviate. So, if you’ve been feeling a little weird lately, or maybe you’ve been a bit jumpy or short tempered for no apparent reason, know that you’re not alone and that there are plenty of legitimate reasons to be uncertain. You’re not crazy, or too sensitive, or too scared; you’re having a natural reaction to the times we find ourselves in. They say ignorance is bliss, and it is admittedly much simpler, but I’d rather know and choose for myself.
If you or someone you know is struggling in their day to day, or just need an ear about all the crazy going on in the world today, send them my way or to any (good) therapist. I truly believe therapy is widely applicable and can help most situations, transitions, and adjustments and that, just like going to the doctor, preventative intervention is always better than postintervention. So don’t hesitate to ask for help, it’s why we’re here and it’s why we do what we do. This post uses “societal anxiety” as an informal descriptive term, not as a clinical diagnosis. The information provided is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized mental health assessment or treatment.
Aaron Rushing, LCSWA
Strong Foundations Counseling, PLLC
901 Battleground Ave., Suite E, Greensboro, NC 27408
Office: (336) 609-6844
Fax: (336) 217-9259
Email: admin@strongfoundationspllc.com