Anxiety — that feeling of dread, fear, worry, and panic — is certainly nothing new. Hippocrates wrote about it in the fourth century BCE, as did Søren Kierkegaard in the 1860s. And Sigmund Freud addressed the disorder in 1926.
However, jump to the present and we’re seeing a significant uptick — especially with youth.
Pharmaceutical drugs tend to be the classic treatment for treating anxiety (as well as the biggest money maker). Cognitive therapy is a common approach as well, while those with a holistic bent often turn to meditation, yoga, massage, and other relaxation techniques.
Music therapy has also been used with some success. But now, neuroscientists in the U.K. have zeroed in on a song that results in a dramatic 65% reduction in overall anxiety.
Anxiety and Generation Y
A 2013 survey found that 57% of American female university students reported episodes of “overwhelming anxiety.” And in the United Kingdom, the charity YouthNet discovered that a third of young women — and one in ten young men — suffer from panic attacks.
Marjorie Wallace, CEO of the charity Sane, believes that generation Y (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) is the age of desperation. “Growing up has always been difficult, but this sense of desperation? That’s new,” she says.
Writes Rachael Dove in “Anxiety: the epidemic sweeping through Generation Y“:
So, what’s going on? The rise of technology, overly-protective parenting and “exam-factory” schooling are among the reasons psychologists suggest for our generational angst. Another, brought up on multiple occasions by my peers and by psychologists I spoke to, is the luxury (as ungrateful as it sounds) of too much choice.
Pieter Kruger, a London-based psychologist, says research indicates that people who feel they don’t have a choice are actually more resilient — mainly because they can blame life or others if they make a wrong decision. However, if you have a range of choices, you have no one to blame but yourself. “We become much more obsessive because we want to make the right decision every time,” he says.
On her blog, We Are All Mad Here, writer Claire Eastham agrees: “I spend a lot of time worrying about what I am going to do with my life. Previous generations had choice taken out of their hands. If you are told what to do it takes the pressure away.”
In our modern era, decision making can trigger a type of paralysis. Often, we will obsessively research the many different options for, say, a pair of shoes. Eventually, information overload will kick in and shut the whole shopping venture down, leaving us exhausted and guilty for being crippled by such a seemingly simple task.
Technology also contributes to the rise of anxiety that already largely exists in society. A good number of millennials feel exposed without their smartphones — and are rarely without them. Mobile gadgets tend to be their window to the world and foster a sense of connectedness.
But there’s a dark side to feeling the need to keep on top of what everyone is doing on social media — otherwise known as Fomo, or the Fear of Missing Out.
“Fomo is very real and can be a constant addiction that affects anxiety levels and a general sense of wellbeing,” says Kruger.
Social media allows us to compare everything — relationships, diet, figure, beauty, wealth, standard of living — not only with our friends, but with celebrities, too. And, as research has shown, time on social media “can cause depression in people who compare themselves with others.”
Besides revamping our lifestyles, creating more nervous system regulation, and limiting exposure to social media — and learning to work with a sometimes overwhelming abundance of choice — neuroscientists have found listening to a specially designed song can have a profound influence on our levels of anxiety.
The Creation of the Ultimate Anti-Stress Music
Researchers at Mindlab International in the U.K. wanted to know what kind of music induces the greatest state of relaxation. The study involved having participants try to solve difficult puzzles — which inherently triggered a certain degree of stress — while connected to sensors. At the same time, participants listened to a range of songs as researchers measured their brain activity, heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
What they found is that one song — “Weightless” — resulted in a striking 65% reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35% reduction in their usual physiological resting rates.
Interestingly, the song was specifically designed to induce this highly relaxed state. It should be noted that this only temporarily reduces anxiety. If we don’t change our lifestyle and work to solve the problem at its core, we’ll need to use the music virtually forever. One great way to start on this path is Joe Martino’s 5 Days of YOU Challenge.
Back to the music, created by Marconi Union, the musicians teamed up with sound therapists to carefully arrange harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines, which in turn slow a listener’s heart rate and blood pressure, while also lowering stress hormones like cortisol.
Experience it for yourself here:
