Article May 3, 2004 Issue

ANTIDOTE FOR ANXIETY

By J. Thomas Black

There Is An Old, And Very Bad, Joke that says anxiety is no laughing matter. The fact is, it's really not—especially for folks who chronically suffer from it. One magazine that summarized several diagnosed forms of anxiety calculated that the total number of people afflicted was 13.3 percent of the overall population in the United States.

But that old, bad joke isn't even funny for many people who, while perhaps not debilitated, nevertheless find apprehension, uneasiness, sometimes dread, about the future, to be inevitable elements of modern day existence. The other day I was speaking with a woman who, for several years, has worked securely in a moderately sized business but now feels very insecure in her job. Another woman told me recently of her apprehension over an upcoming airplane flight. Since 9/11, many people have felt concern about being in, or even near, tall buildings, trains, and shopping centers.

Some feel they are waiting apprehensively for the proverbial next shoe to drop. Then there is the general turmoil of lives that are accelerated by the "conveniences" of cell phones, pagers, and home offices to the point of running nonstop, with no regenerative downtime. A friend recently told me he thought life for many has become a form of "controlled madness."