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Doomscrolling - Cellphone addiction illustration
Some of my colleagues and I refer to it as “ubiquitous stress,” meaning it’s everywhere all the time. For most of us, it’s not the sort of stress that is specific to us as individuals, although there’s plenty of that going around. Instead, it is the type we share collectively in a manner that permeates the background of our lives.
Unless you’re mentally checked out, you know the list. There’s the climate disaster, the rise of oligarchy, Orwellian propaganda, needless wars, inflation, hate and cruelty, the coddling of pedophiles, rising income disparities, growing disruptions from AI, America’s political civil war, the poisoning of our food, water and air, the healthcare crisis, and on and on. You can probably add a few I missed.
Psychotherapists and other caregivers increasingly hear about these disturbing issues from their clients. A recent survey shows over two-thirds of shrinks report their clients discuss ubiquitous stress frequently. Meaning in therapy, people are spending an increasing amount of time focused on our collective disquiet rather than their personal issues.
Toxic Soup
Why? Because it’s no longer easy to dismiss what is happening in our world as somehow “out there” in a way that doesn’t impact us as individuals, families and communities. We’re drowning in a toxic mental soup of disheartening news, and many are struggling to come up for air.
One of the effects of this conundrum is that the craziness all around us amplifies whatever craziness we feel inside ourselves. Carrie is a case in point.
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“My depression and anxiety are amping up,” she told me.
“Has something changed for the worse in your life?” I asked.
“Not in my life, but in the life of the world,” she replied .
General Angst
It’s challenging to determine the prevalence of this malady across the general population. Folks who come to psychotherapy tend to be more sensitive and empathic. Meaning they may experience this suffering more acutely. However, there is considerable anecdotal evidence suggesting many if not most of us feel this generalized angst.
There are population-wide mental health statistics showing overall rates of anxiety and depression have risen substantially over the last 10 to 15 years, a period coinciding with the proliferation of so-called smartphones, elevated political strife, intensifying natural disasters and the Covid pandemic. We can’t definitively link this uptick to ubiquitous stress, but if it quacks like duck . . .
Of course, some folks who feel this dread may not recognize its source. I’ve encountered a number of people who don’t connect the dots until someone points out the obvious.
Doom Scrolling?
Many of those with the highest stress levels in this regard are news junkies and doom scrollers. It’s one thing to be informed, it’s another to be saturated. However, even folks who limit their exposure to news and social media know enough to realize we’re in bad shape.
What to do? There’s a ton of advice from people like me, but there are limits to how much you can swim in slop and not feel sick. I’ve told clients (and myself) the importance of reclaiming control of one’s thoughts rather than playing an endless dystopian loop in one’s head.
However, even when we’re not consciously focused on the disasters unfolding around us, the sense that they’re underway does not vanish. Just because something is out of one’s awareness does not mean it is out of one’s mind. Consciousness operates on multiple levels simultaneously, so this angst can be like a stone in one’s shoe. You can still walk, but it hurts.
When I inquire with colleagues about what they believe is behind the profound escalation in mental health issues, some point to brain toxicity from forever chemicals and microplastics. Others blame information technology and our screen addiction. However, most suspect it’s ubiquitous stress.
Contemplating this dilemma, I take some comfort in these words from Mr. Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’.”
Now more than ever, it’s vital that each of us becomes one of those people.
