Mounting Anxiety
As anxiety and self-harm escalate, mental health concerns are top of mind.
Mental health has gone from public health crisis to epidemic—and it’s touching every age group and demographic.
According to the NCDHHS, of the 2,423 violent deaths in 2020, almost 60%—or 1,436—were suicide. Per NC Child Fatality Task Force’s most recent report, 57 youths took their own lives—with a 46% surge in self-harm ER visits among girls aged 10–14 from 2020–21. At NC State, eight student deaths have been reported this school year, with at least five reported as suicides—and per a university counseling center survey last year, 27% of students said they were so depressed they found it difficult to function. And per NCDHHS, while suicide rates are higher among males, the suicide rate peaks for females aged 45–54.
Anxiety has been named as a major contributor to the escalation of these deaths. According to UNC professor of psychology and neuroscience and Director of Clinical Psychology PhD program Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD, “Anxiety is a universal experience we all have—it’s part of the fight/flight response, which is there to protect us from harm. But sometimes anxiety can become overwhelming for some people to the extent it gets in the way of their functioning and causes a great deal of distress.”
In light of the current events, we sat down with Dr. Abramowitz to discuss contributing factors, warning signs, breaking the stigma and more.
How has anxiety evolved?Anxiety went from being a ‘normal’ human emotion we all learn to live and operate with to being something we need to control, avoid or fight—which is especially apparent over the last 10–20 years with a shift toward protecting others (our kids, students, etc.) from anxiety, rather than supporting them in how to get through anxiety. We’ve come to view anxiety as a liability, rather than as our friendly and life-saving fight/flight response.
What has been a major contributing factor? In the ’90s–’00s with the internet/social media, we started trying to prepare the road for the child rather than preparing the child for the road. On social media, we don’t see people having anxiety (only the positive aspects of their lives), so we start to think we shouldn’t be anxious. The media very much feeds into the narrative that anxiety should be avoided or controlled, and life can and should be anxiety-free—which is, of course, untrue!
At what cost? By protecting others from anxiety (especially kids), we’re missing opportunities to teach them helpful life strategies for managing inevitable stress and anxiety. Being overwhelmed with anxiety does not mean anything’s wrong with the person, only that they experience anxiety at times, or at levels, that are unhelpful.
How do we break the stigma? We need to do more to help people understand mental health and illness, rather than perpetuating the fear and misunderstanding. Strong scientific evidence shows calling mental problems ‘disorders’ and ‘diseases of the brain’ leads to fear and greater misunderstanding. When we create a better understanding of mental health experiences (anxiety, panic, OCD, etc.), we create more respect for these challenges.
How do we better educate the community? Many people think we should more strongly label mental disorders as ‘medical disorders’ like any other. But we’ve been trying this strategy for 30+ years and it isn’t working particularly well. We need to help people understand—whether it’s anxiety, panic, obsessions, substance use, hallucinations, mania, attentional difficulties, depression, body image concerns, etc.—these are part of the human experience, not a ‘brain disease.’ We all experience many of these in various forms—they’re a part of human experience. Moreover, it’s often society’s acceptance that makes all the difference.
What are some of the warning signs of anxiety bordering suicide/self-harm?If the anxiety is associated with severe depression. We can recognize this by checking in with people we know are dealing with anxiety to make sure they are still engaging in their activities and not becoming socially isolated.
Have we historically seen education change perception? Before 1973, gay people were given a psychiatric diagnosis and given treatment by trying to convert them. Now, we sneer at these practices. But we got here not by labeling gay as a brain disease, but, instead, by coming to understand homosexuality is a normal expression of sexuality. We became less fearful as a society through education. In 1973, homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders and conversion fell out of favor. Maybe we can educate society and change the tolerance for other types of experiences currently labeled as brain diseases.
Help is available. Need someone to talk to? Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
