As mentioned previously, Anxiety Within is an Instagram meme page that deals with all manner of memes that revolve around the concept of anxiety. The page was created in 2018 and has since then amassed a following of nearly 300,000 followers who are digging the 8,640+ posts already up on the page. The posts are mostly memes, but do include some let's be real time with educational posts about mental health.
So, a bit of context: anxiety is a feeling of unease, whether worry or fear, which can range from mild to severe. Now, if they come and go—say, around an exam—that is normal. However, some folks find it hard to control their worry, and it becomes a constant in their lives, turning into full-blown panic attacks, disorders or phobias.
Anxiety can ultimately affect many aspects of life. If it’s mild, it can be merely annoying having to, say, check the stove or the door lock a couple times more than the average Joe.
If it’s severe, however, it could be an immense hurdle to overcome in terms of moving on in life or simply coming out of your home for fear of the unknown.
And you’d be surprised how prevalent anxiety is these days. In the US, it is reported that over 40 million adults (roughly 19% of the population) have an anxiety disorder. Throw symptoms of depression into the mix and the count increases to a third (32.3%) of adults in the US. Younger people, ages 13 through 18, are most likely to suffer from anxiety, though adults might have it too.
In terms of the whole world, it’s estimated that roughly 301 million people—roughly 4% of the global population—were suffering from some form of chronic anxiety.
Some experts suggest that the reason why anxiety is so widespread is due to the excessive amounts of information we soak in on the daily.
As such, these days, people often have trouble understanding what information they need to react to and what ought to be ignored. In turn, this leads to things like obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias, among many others. And factors like the pandemic didn’t help, as there are still signs pointing to higher anxiety rates among the population than they were before covid hit.
