In Lauren Oyler’s essay about anxiety last week, she referenced a late 19th century diagnosis known as Americanitis, which described “the high-strung, nervous, active temperament of the American people.” Whether incited by advances in technology (causing loss of sleep, excessive worry) or capitalism (causing long work days, fast pace of life), the result was, according to experts of the time, a rattled population unable to relax. A black mirror of the American dream, Americanitis took the same ideas favored by patriots and recast them as depressing. Here is the land of possibilities—so vast in scale you’ll forever be unsatisfied!

In Lauren Oyler’s essay about anxiety last week, she referenced a late 19th century diagnosis known as Americanitis , which described “the high-strung, nervous, active temperament of the American people.” Whether incited by advances in technology (causing loss of sleep, excessive worry) or capitalism (causing long work days, fast pace of life), the result was, according to experts of the time, a rattled population unable to relax. A black mirror of the American dream, Americanitis took the same ideas favored by patriots and recast them as depressing. Here is the land of possibilities—so vast in scale you’ll forever be unsatisfied!

Haley Nahman • #172: Trick questions

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Put it all together—diagnostic inflation in medicine; prevalence inflation in media; negativity inflation in news—and one gets the distinct sense that Americans might be making themselves sick with pessimism, anxiety, and gloom. But that’s not all. Just as the U.S. has long been the global economy’s chief cultural exporter—from Coca-Cola to Mickey

Work in Progress, The Atlantic • America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

My Anxiety

Lauren Oyler newyorker.com

America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

Work in Progress, The Atlantic readwise.io

“Heroic individualism and its most prevalent symptoms — restlessness, feeling rushed, low-level angst, scattered mess, exhaustion, burnout, periods of emptiness, a compulsion to keep chasing the next thing, and recurrent longing — all of which are supported by mounting data that we’ll soon examine, describe what so many people report feeling these ... See more

Brad Stulberg • The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds--Not Crushes--Your Soul

Driven by ultra-capitalistic incentives, the incessant pursuit of productivity and perfection combined with external, never-ending stimuli results in burnout and anxiety, the symptoms of an overloaded nervous system.

Matt Yao • More Human Possible

although mental illness is global, the experience of mental illness cannot be separated from culture. If there is a surge of Anglospheric gloom among teenagers, we have to study the culture that young people are consuming with their technology. In the past generation, the English-speaking world, led by the U.S., has experimented with a novel approa

Work in Progress, The Atlantic • America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

what if our distress is a perfectly normal response to a society that’s lost its way? What if unfettered capitalism is making us sick?

Devon Frye • Is Capitalism Making Us Sick?

Our around-the-clock overexposure to global human suffering, our daily feed of what we once considered catastrophic events — political, ecological, cultural — when combined with diminished attention spans, smaller and smaller chunks of content, and baked-in cross-platform imperatives to remain emotionally removed from any given person, place, or ev... See more

Work in Progress, The Atlantic • America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

My Anxiety

America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

Brad Stulberg • The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds--Not Crushes--Your Soul

Matt Yao • More Human Possible

Work in Progress, The Atlantic • America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

Devon Frye • Is Capitalism Making Us Sick?

Heather Havrilesky • The Rise of Emotional Divestment