Why Fear, Anxiety and Mistrust are Spreading in Today’s Society

The paper focuses its analysis on western countries, since anxiety and fear are the subject of their traditional way of thought and their culture. Furthermore, western countries have developed a particular sensitivity towards such subjects or disorders. While this is not a phenomenon found only in the west, the WHO reported that disorders linked to stress (depression and anxiety) are more frequently diagnosed in the western countries, also through their greater awareness and better access to mental health services. The scientific literature also shows that western societies tend to be more vulnerable to forms of stress due to their employment, economic and social structures. The ICT contributes to all this since the connection is permanent, dismantling the barriers between work and private life. In the first part we will see how anxiety is the product of western culture and we will examine the profiles and structure of mental health, including from the quantitative point of view. We will then explore its social causes in the second part, focusing in particular on climate change; and in the third part we will deal with the economic aspects as giving rise to states of anxiety and stress. Economic aspects are impacted by globalization processes and by technological innovations, given the effect they have on the world of work and on employment levels. This requires measures for the efficient handling of processes of change, reducing the uncertainty thus produced and mitigating feelings of anxiety and fear.