Anxiety

In 2019, 301 million people lived with an anxiety disorder including 58 million children. Anxiety is the most common psychological complaint worldwide and has only increased in recent decades, especially among young people. How are we to understand that people are becoming more anxious in a world that is safer? Compared to our great-grandparents, we are a generation that grew up without war, in more than relative prosperity, and with the highest life expectancy in world history. Could our perception of risk be driven by our subjective perception of control? Those who feel in control will perceive little risk, while those who lack that sense of control will see risk everywhere. Does the world seem dangerous and unpredictable to us because of our need for control?