By Carolanne Wright
Anxiety — that feeling of dread, fear, worry and panic — is certainly nothing new. Hippocrates wrote about it in the fourth century BCE. As did Søren Kierkegaard in the 1860s. And Sigmund Freud addressed the disorder in 1926.
Anxiety — that feeling of dread, fear, worry and panic — is certainly nothing new. Hippocrates wrote about it in the fourth century BCE. As did Søren Kierkegaard in the 1860s. And Sigmund Freud addressed the disorder in 1926.
However, jump to the present
and we’re seeing a significant uptick — especially with youth.
Pharmaceutical drugs tend to be the classic treatment for treating anxiety (as well as the biggest money maker). Cognitive therapy is a common approach as well. Those with a holistic bent often turn to meditation, yoga, massage and other relaxation techniques. Music therapy has also been used with some success. But now neuroscientists in the U.K. have zeroed in on a single song that results in a dramatic 65 percent reduction in overall anxiety…
Anxiety & Generation Y
A 2013 survey found that 57
percent of American female university students reported episodes of
“overwhelming anxiety.” And in the United Kingdom, the charity YouthNet
discovered a third of young women — and one in ten young men — suffer from
panic attacks.
Marjorie Wallace, CEO of the
charity Sane, believes that generation Y (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) is
the age of desperation. “Growing up has always been difficult, but this sense
of desperation? That’s new,” she says.
Writes Rachael Dove in
Anxiety: the epidemic sweeping through Generation Y:
“So, what’s going on? The
rise of technology, overly-protective parenting and “exam-factory” schooling
are among the reasons psychologists suggest for our generational angst.
Another, brought up on multiple occasions by my peers and by psychologists I
spoke to, is the luxury (as ungrateful as it sounds) of too much choice.”
Pieter Kruger, a
London-based psychologist, says research indicates that people who feel they
don’t have a choice are actually more resilient — mainly because they can blame
life or others if they make a wrong decision. However, if you have a range of
choices, you have no one to blame but yourself. “We become much more obsessive
because we want to make the right decision every time,” he says.
Writer Claire Eastham, 26,
agrees on her blog We Are All Mad Here:
“I spend a lot of time
worrying about what I am going to do with my life. Previous generations had
choice taken out of their hands. If you are told what to do it takes the
pressure away.”
In our modern era, decision
making can trigger a type of paralysis. Often, we will obsessively research the
many different options for, say, a pair of shoes. Eventually, information
overload will kick in and shut the whole shopping venture down, leaving us
exhausted and guilty for being crippled by such a seemingly simple task.
Technology also contributes
to the rise of anxiety. A good number of millennials feel exposed without their
smartphones — and are rarely without them. Mobile gadgets tend to be their
window to the world and foster a sense of connectedness. But there’s a dark
side to feeling the need to keep on top of what everyone is doing on social
media — otherwise known as Fomo, or the Fear of Missing Out.
“Fomo is very real and can
be a constant addiction that affects anxiety levels and a general sense of
wellbeing,” says Kruger.
Social media allows us to
compare everything — relationships, diet, figure, beauty, wealth, standard of
living — not only with our friends, but with celebrities too. And, as research
has shown, time on social media “can cause depression in people who comparethemselves with others.”
Besides revamping our
lifestyles and limiting exposure to social media — and learning to work with a
sometimes overwhelming abundance of choice — neuroscientists have found
listening to a specially designed song can have a profound influence over our
levels of anxiety.
The Creation Of The Ultimate
Anti-Stress Music
Researchers at Mindlab
International in the U.K. wanted to know what kind of music induces the
greatest state of relaxation. The study involved having participants try to
solve difficult puzzles — which inherently triggered a certain degree of stress
— while connected to sensors. At the same time, participants listened to a
range of songs as researchers measured their brain activity, heart rate, blood
pressure and rate of breathing.
What they found is that one
song — “Weightless” — resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction inparticipants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usualphysiological resting rates.
Interestingly, the song was
specifically designed to induce this highly relaxed state. Created by Marconi
Union, the musicians teamed up with sound therapists to carefully arrange
harmonies, rhythms and bass lines, which in turn slow a listener’s heart rate
and blood pressure, while also lowering stress hormones like cortisol.
In fact, the music is so
effective, that many of the female participants became drowsy — to the point
where lead researcher Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson advises against listening to it
while driving.
But don’t take their word
for it. Experience it for yourself here:
This post was republished from themindunleashed.com You can find the
original post here
