Anxiety at 6:00

I have been thinking a lot about how did we get here concerning addiction.  I know times have always been tough, and I know that there have always been struggles with addiction, but it just seems that it has such a huge membership now, and I can't figure out why.  Through watching various shows (Intervention, Dr. Drew), Documentaries (PBS station),and listening to the news, it just seems as though there are so many hurting people.  The common thread with the majority of programs I've heard, concerning people with addiction, have to do with some emotional hurt that happened.  The degree of hurts vary, but emotions seem to be the seed to all of this.  So, what has happened to stir so much emotional unrest?

In Al-Anon, we went through some readings.  Each of us read one, and commented on it.  One of the women there read reading #8 that had to do with less stress and pressure.  That we're supposed to pace ourselves and not let stress overwhelm us (I'm paraphrasing).  It started me thinking.  A few weeks ago, I heard on the news (actually, it was the alarm in the morning, so I woke up to this) that people are losing approximately $750.00 a day waiting in traffic.  What!?  I heard that and felt a little surge of panic shoot through my body (remember, I was in the fog of waking up), even though it only takes me 15 minutes to drive to work.  As my head became more clear, and I continued to listen, the announcer explained that because people are waiting in traffic for so long, they are losing that amount of time that they could be working.  So, that added up to around $750 dollars a day.  They didn't specify the amount of time in traffic, just that dollar figure.  But that opened another door in my thinking and I began noticing how much we, as individuals are allowing other members of society to feed our stress.  The news goes without saying.  Even the little blurbs between shows produce anxiety about what you can view during the 6:00 news.  We are being conditioned for doom. 

There are too many examples to list, but I bet I can tally at least 10 during one day.  Even when the stress isn't announced, I have noticed I'm beginning to anticipate it. For instance, the first time I saw the movie Babe,  the farmer was doing this dance for Babe (Babe wasn't feeling well) when he jumped into the air, I thought, "Oh, he's going to have a heart attack."  He didn't.  The first time, I watched this BEAUTIFUL movie called, The Magic of Ordinary Days, Livy was pregnant and pulling a huge gas can out of the truck, and I though,"Oh, she's going to loose the baby."  She didn't.  But it's instances like that, that I have become so accustomed to anxiety and dread, that even when something lovely is happening, that little bit of anxiety begins. 

So, could that be why addiction is the new growing epidemic?  These sensitive souls are being bombarded to be the best, be successful, doom is coming, you're too old, your too something else, and my daughter's anxiety, "It's (your?) never good enough." 

Feelings lie.  But all of the stress, and the isolation that technology brings, is hard to struggle through on a daily basis.  It didn't used to be this way.  When my parents were growing up, it was a slower, more dignified time.  Life has gotten so fast paced, and isolating, that if you don't keep those plates spinning, it's all going to crash down around you.  And somehow, more plates keep being added. 

Everyone is different, I get that. Everyone handles emotions, experiences, life differently.  But something has happened to cause people to want to escape from the hear and now.  Something has shifted from, "Tomorrow is a new day"  to  "Tomorrow may never come."