Unmasking The ‘Anxiety Epidemic’ - 2024 Conference

Session Description

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt asserts parents are increasingly over-protecting their children by keeping them away from boisterous play, necessary exposure to life’s challenges and failures, and not fostering altruism and personal responsibility. I agree. And this ill-advised parenting style has also produced an epidemic of fearful, entitled older teens and twenty-somethings who feel crippled by anxiety. You may also be seeing more of these cases in your office. Because I practice a form of psychotherapy designed to facilitate clarity, compassionate regard, and ethical conduct, I begin by asking these patients to describe their anxiety experience and its stimuli. With investigation, their answers often point to what I call ‘false anxiety’—a well-worn strategy (used intentionally or unknowingly) to avoid all manner of unpleasant experiences. When I point this out to a new patient and call them on it, most react with surprise and anger because: 1) many of them…