Anxiety before the digital age

[Perpetual]

Today I went to my sister’s place and didn’t take my phone with me. On my way there, and it’s a one min walk, I got numerous intrusive thoughts; “What if I forgot my keys and can’t get back in, how do I call somebody?”, “What if something happens to me and nobody sees it.” It made me think about how it was to have (severe) anxiety pre-smartphone (or even internet) era. Was it perhaps easier?

I am 32 years old. I started using computers and the internet at around 13 and got my first cellphone when I was 15. My anxiety only got debilitating in my young adult years, so I don’t have much to compare to. How was it for the older generation active on this forum? Do you feel it’s easier now because you can always reach somebody, wherever you are, or has it become more difficult because of that? Does the ability to connect to other people online outweigh the negative side of always being able to look for information?

[ankietyjoe]

Smartphones are a curse. They are a dopamine fix that we're all becoming addicted to and are contributing towards intense mental issues.

Before smartphones, virtually nobody had issues contacting people.....when they wanted/needed to. There were phones everywhere.

There is no indispensable benefit in always on communication 99.99% of the time.

[Lencoboy]

I think the media in general have a lot to answer for in this supposed 'epidemic' of anxiety and fear, which has most certainly become more apparent over the past 20 years.

Even 'conventional' media like printed newspapers and TV news networks (BBC News, ITN, Channel 4, 5 News, Sky News, etc) seem to have a habit of pushing everything to the max these days, especially with the endless on-screen captions and loud theme music, which can be a helluva nightmare for people who suffer from sensory overload.

Mind you, even the theme music and on-screen graphics on BBC Breakfast News, 6 o' clock News, Midlands Today, ITN News at Ten, etc, were already absolute visual and auditory torture for me in the late 80s and early 90s, let alone what we're constantly bombarded with today.

And nearly every weekday breakfast and teatime I had to endure the discomfort of being bombarded with the first 3 I have listed above with my mom religiously having to have them on full blast and calling me a selfish dictator whenever I was on the verge of meltdown over them.

She always however, seems to have been a little OCD about the weather forecast though.