Is a Generalized Crackup Occurring in Britain? The Average Person Spends 2-1/4 Hours of Every Day Worrying
January 2nd, 2009Could this possibly be true?
Via: Reuters:
Britain is becoming a nation of worriers, according to a new survey, with the financial crisis giving people ever more reason to fret about their lives.
The average person now spends 2-1/4 hours of every day worrying — six and half years of the average life span — a figure up 30 minutes a day from last year, according to the worry index compiled by reallyworried.com, a support group.
Young adults — those aged between 16 and 24 — worry the most, and women worry substantially more than men, according to the survey of 1,400 people nationwide.
The top five concerns in 2008 were: the cost of living, energy prices, personal health, outgoings and income, and personal debt.
Job security, which last year didn’t figure in the top 25 worries, shot up to number 7 in the rankings, one notch below recession and a bigger concern than crime.
So much fretting can take a terrible toll on people’s health and their sex lives, according to the survey’s compilers.
One in five questioned said they drowned their concerns in drink, up 50 percent on last year. One in six said they now shy away from sex because of their constant fretting.
“It is alarming to learn from this research just how many people in Britain are chronic worriers,” said Phillip Hodson, a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
“Worry is the central component of all anxiety disorders and most depression. It is a sign of a double difficulty — that we cannot get our problems into perspective nor take effective action to solve them.”
Those are some disturbing anecdotes and statistics, assuming they are painting an accurate picture. I can understand how living through a collapse-situation would tempt people to worry. But it’s far better to make a distinction between concern and worry. With concern, a person tries to figure out what they can do about their situation and then does it and then tries to enjoy life as much as possible once they’ve done what they can. With worry, a person is engaging in a form of neurotic self-abuse.
This might sound to some people like a bunch of psychobabble soup, but I think it’s relevant to collapse. When you’re living through a collapse-situation, it’s important to keep your wits about you and try to have as healthy a mindset as you can manage. That’s why self-abusing attitudes need to be recognized as neurotic luxuries one can well afford to outgrow and discard. Applying this dictum to myself is my New Year’s Resolution for this year, and it’s a long overdue resolution at that.
Yikes, Brits are now too worried to have sex. Guess they’ll just have to find some other way to put each other to sleep…
Let’s hope at least that this “spending” helps prop up the ailing economy of a moribund island… or not…
Note that their worries are selfish.
Not a mention about environment devastation, mountain top removal for coal mines, global starvation, the hunting to near extinction of every creature larger than a housecat.
Me me me me me me me.
just lie back and think of England…and don’t forget to smile for the CCTV camera too!