Anxiety is no longer just a personal disorder. It’s a part of our cultural norm.
People are carrying stress that extends far beyond individual problems. Financial uncertainty, political division, social unrest, global conflict, and constant exposure to crisis through media have created an emotional climate where many individuals feel psychologically overwhelmed before their day even begins. I know this is true for me.
In his book Divided: Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls, Tim Marshall explores how nations, governments, and societies continue building physical, political, and emotional walls in response to fear, insecurity, migration, conflict, and identity struggles. While the book focuses on geopolitics, its themes mirror what many people are experiencing internally.
People are divided externally, but they are also divided within themselves.
Modern anxiety often feels like living behind invisible walls.
There are walls between people and rest.
Walls between people and safety.
Walls between people and trust.
Walls between people and emotional vulnerability.
Many individuals wake up already emotionally bracing themselves for the day ahead. Before breakfast, they have already seen breaking news alerts, economic fears, political outrage, violence, and social conflict flooding their phones. The nervous system was never designed to process global crisis twenty-four hours a day.
As a result, many people are functioning in survival mode without realizing it.
Anxiety is not always loud panic attacks or visible distress. Sometimes anxiety looks like:
Difficulty relaxing even during downtime
Irritability and emotional exhaustion
Overthinking simple decisions
Constant worry about finances or stability
Trouble sleeping despite fatigue
Feeling emotionally disconnected from others
Doomscrolling while simultaneously feeling overwhelmed by the news
People often believe anxiety means weakness, but anxiety is frequently the mind attempting to prepare for uncertainty. The problem is that modern life provides an endless supply of uncertainty.
In many ways, society has normalized hypervigilance.
We are encouraged to stay alert politically, financially, socially, and emotionally at all times. There is pressure to constantly anticipate danger, conflict, rejection, or failure. Over time, the body begins responding to everyday life as though it is a continuous emergency.
That is exhausting. SMH.
Tim Marshall’s discussion of walls between nations also reflects emotional walls between people. Fear creates separation. Anxiety often convinces individuals to isolate themselves emotionally because vulnerability feels unsafe. People withdraw. Conversations become defensive. Compassion becomes conditional. Trust weakens.
The emotional consequences are significant.
Many people are grieving connection without realizing it. They miss feeling emotionally safe. They miss simplicity. They miss relationships untouched by political tension, economic stress, and social exhaustion.
Yet anxiety also teaches an important truth: human beings are not designed to carry the weight of the world alone.
Mental wellness requires intentional boundaries. Not walls that disconnect us from humanity, but healthy emotional boundaries that protect our peace. There is a difference between staying informed and becoming emotionally consumed.
Sometimes healing looks like:
Reconnecting with faith, family, or community
Taking breaks from social media conflict
Going outside and touch grass
Practicing mindfulness and emotional grounding
Allowing yourself moments of joy without guilt
Seeking counseling or support instead of silently carrying stress
As a counselor, I often see individuals struggling to explain why they feel anxious even when “nothing is technically wrong.” But anxiety does not always emerge from one traumatic event. Sometimes it develops slowly through prolonged exposure to instability, fear, and emotional overload.
The world feels uncertain to many of us right now. That uncertainty can make even ordinary responsibilities feel heavier; much heavier.
But healing begins when people stop treating anxiety like a personal failure and start recognizing it as a human response to prolonged stress and division. Give yourself grace!
We may not be able to remove every wall society has created, but we can begin dismantling the emotional walls within ourselves. This summer, let’s create space for rest. For connection. For honesty. For hope.
Because surviving an anxious world requires more than endurance.
It requires emotional restoration.
“In many ways, society has normalized hypervigilance.”
Welcome to how most African Americans live 24/7! This society has always been toxic for us. And it’s now become so dysfunctional in the era of MAGA that the hypervigilance is infecting everyone else as well.
Things will not improve until we rid ourselves of trump and trumpism and at least try to turn down the intensity on hate.