Breakthrough Cure for Anxiety: Truth (Use as Directed)

The scourge of anxiety burdening millions of people is a reality we’re tempted to deny, but its many causes and impacts require attention. National Mental Health Awareness Month, observed in May, has challenged us to push back against today’s epidemic and make America hopeful again. To ease anxiety, we must regain our navigational skills in a sea of change. It’s time to reckon with doubt’s dominance and reject the fake liberation of our “post-truth” society.

“Anxiety in its several forms, including phobias and social anxiety, is the most common mental health disorder in the U.S.,” reports Psychology Today (PT). “Population-based surveys indicate that about a third of adults in the U.S. will grapple with disabling anxiety at some point.”

Government researchers say about half of young adults (ages 18-24) report suffering from anxiety and/or depression on a regular basis.

Anxiety is rooted in the human imagination—our ability to think about the future, the editors at PT’s online “Anxiety Center” point out. It’s “a mental state of apprehension about what might, or might not, lie ahead” when pondering a particular problem or “just a generalized, vague sense of dread.”

The plight is both a feature and a bug in our neural circuitry, which chemically warns us that it’s time for “fight or flight” before we’ve had time to consciously assess a situation.

This (literally) nervous system can become “so sensitized it perceives threat where it doesn’t exist,” overwhelming any “rational control.”

The phenomenon has many causes, and its intensity varies according to our biological makeup, our life history and personality, and the “coping skills” we cultivate. But anxiety is said to be more prevalent now due to such factors as: chronic worry about economic or other uncertainties, undeveloped emotional-regulation skills, the loss of standardized structures for personal interactions, and social media sparking constant comparison games and self-doubt, according to the “Anxiety Center.”

One might add that too much of our shared “popular culture” today centers on political gamesmanship. May has brought additional news reports jarring us with allegations of government lies, cover-ups, abuses, and assaults on dignity and democracy.

The magazine offers two general takeaways suggesting directions for a cure: 1) “Anxiety is a reaction to stress”; and 2) “Ambiguity typically breeds anxiety.” Our post-truth world of awkward human and digital interactions, driven by knowledge being changed or questioned, needs to recover focus, meaning, clarity, and trust in self and others.

A tsunami of information and misinformation, understanding and misunderstanding, leads to racing thoughts, distraction, confusion, and conflict, plus feelings of insecurity, despair, and anger.

Mass media and countless apps feed these reactions. If news stories and punditry don’t tickle our surprise and curiosity in a constructive way, we retreat into coarsened self-expression, confirmation bias, and empty entertainment, which debilitate one’s mindfulness and capacity for healthy reflection.

A person’s interior life can be thrown for a loop. Fortunately, many still find stability in rock-solid principles about enduring truths, hope and faith in a loving God, and mental or physical spaces where coherence and community reside. Inevitably, these qualities will be mocked as outmoded signs of despicably closed minds

Those informed only by secular preferences for relativism, self-defined identities, and power and pride as ultimate goals are the more likely prey of anxiety. They may retreat into escapism and addictions. Or they may try to banish ambiguity by muffling their opponents and elevating their own narratives.

We also face a growing danger from artificial intelligence. The technology promises great advancements, and its advocates predict private gains. However, stars must align inside and outside the tech industry to achieve these hopes. Individuals must engage with AI in responsible collaboration, alongside healthy skepticism and care for the common good. Pope Francis cautioned that we humans have to up our game, morally and intellectually, in order to keep pace.

Anything less than what Francis called “person-centered AI” threatens to impinge on human dignity. Manipulative AI can rob us of trust in someone’s authenticity by becoming that person’s behind-the-scenes Cyrano de Bergerac, an eloquent ghostwriter. With our permission, it can increase our own insecurities and weaken our zeal for excellence, integrity, and uniqueness.

As reported in The New York Times, a freelance writer’s reliance on AI recently yielded made-up recommendations in an article on summer books to read. The article was published unknowingly in two major newspapers this month. A faked booklist is not catastrophic, but it signals that information consumers are vulnerable on a larger scale.

“AI chatbots cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false, and they often make things up,” The Times explained. A society reliant on chatbots risks losing much of its faith in, and empowerment by, expertise and authority.

This conjures a post-truth world whose anxiety, stress, and ambiguity lure people into acedia, an isolating listlessness. Some might develop a hero complex centered on achievement. Others might lose sight of their impact on others, a scenario implied in Careless People, a new memoir by a former social-media insider. In all cases, we risk a stifling disconnection from the Godly and the earthbound.

Pope Leo XIV, like Pope Francis before him, would argue that this decay must be halted on the spiritual level before we can stabilize society. They might agree with psychologist Carl Jung: “Every psychological problem, at bottom, is a spiritual problem.” Many people intuit this.

Young men in Generation Z have shown signs of increased affiliation with Christian churches—at least those whose more conservative values include “traditional family life,” according to a New York Times report.

A Slate commentary adds that these churches “offer human connection, foster friendships, and tell adherents that they are beloved and part of a larger plan. They offer clear rules for living a good and moral life.”

Pope Leo wants to offer understanding, not mere rules, to all men and women by spreading word of Catholic Social Teaching, spelled out by Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century. Our present-day pontiff believes this compendium of principles, which proffers ”truth, freedom, justice, and love” for the whole human family (paragraph 197), will guide “critical thinking” to energize social structures and souls.

Observers expect the non-partisan Social Teaching will apply to the coming AI revolution, just as it interrogated an earlier period of anxious progress—the Industrial Revolution—via the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (“Revolutionary Changes”).

One can imagine those principles spawning what might be called “a theology of anxiety,” that is, a set of resources and ideas for treating the post-truth plague now harming mental wellness. This informal but well-informed theology could be promoted in small doses, like an elevator pitch of remedial evangelization.

The Church’s insistence on truth in the social sphere is less an elevator pitch than a holistic view of humans created in the image of God. This rebuts AI supremacy and delves into many other issues. Society’s best response to anxiety comprises prescriptions from Scripture, religious scholarship, and the Judeo-Christian culture, combining listening with teaching, faith with reason, and political participation with philosophy.

Here are some suggestions we could include in a theology of anxiety. None of these thoughts is an innovation. But pulling together practical wisdom (phronesis) from the past into a therapeutic regimen might edify souls now submerged in America’s mental-health statistics.

Consciously resist anxiety, and hold onto hope.

Don’t let stress destroy your peace. Put it in context, expressing gratitude for all your blessings and praying about what troubles you. “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 6-7)

Accept that some anxiety and ambiguity are inevitable.

God’s creation is subject to human flaws and sin. You’ll have to address many uncomfortable problems in life. But “be not afraid,” and trust in God’s help to do what you cannot do alone. Downsize and repackage your anxiety as a key part of the Christian adventure, in which suffering with and for the truth bears fruit in individuals and the common good.

When we let stress become generalized and vague, no heroic journey is possible. “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries,” Jesus taught. “Today’s trouble is enough for today .” (Matthew 6:34)

Use your reason to dig into reality.

Pope Leo XIV wants to form people of faith by teaching them critical thinking, which subjects our consumption of media content and other sources of tension to bold exercises of reason and will. Some experts recommend that those feeling anxiety write down what they’re worried about, shedding ambiguity.

Humans are built to assess and resist disruptive influences, not merely react spontaneously to our neural circuitry. We must humbly, consistently garner facts and principles with which to choose from society’s Golden Corral of food for thought. We don’t want to chow down on the whole buffet. That way lies acedia—and acid reflux.

Get out of yourself.

Public intellectual Jordan Peterson says self-preoccupation is synonymous with misery. Don’t isolate yourself with “facts” you have adopted willy-nilly for convenience. Use America’s great gift of free speech to benefit from debates where multiple perspectives can generate shared conclusions.

Be a caring listener, finding wisdom in others, not aiming to be the superhero in control. After all, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) Build a relationship with Christ as the living merger of the way, the truth, and the life. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Make time for rest and reflection.

Worry is the worst form of meditation. Instead, meditate on coherent reality, sometimes found in the big picture, sometimes found in a simpler setting. An author in Aleteia this month noted that “more and more young people are finding their way back to church … simply because they need a place to breathe.” It’s a “quiet act of resistance “ to accept God’s prescription for “Sabbath” rest amid secular chaos.

Be patient, letting some knots untie themselves. Prepare for a kind of reflection which clarifies and empowers by “setting your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2) The higher things include “whatever is true,” lovely, and admirable. (Philippians 4:8)

Think of truth as a personal responsibility.

We should welcome accountability for discovering and presenting truth. Don’t hand that duty to AI or social media. Their copycat “knowledge” short-circuits our authentic relationships with each other and God. Don’t dispense any imitations of truth to which you have not contributed work, wonder, creative curiosity, or sacrificial, loving intent.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, discussing the Commandment against bearing false witness, says we’re called to bear witness to the God “who is the truth and wills the truth.” (paragraph 2464) As a matter of justice and honor, “one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.” (paragraph 2469)

Don’t worry, be happy.

There is a light-hearted side to truthfulness because it can bring us together on a level playing field to enjoy greater trust and common ground for mutual understanding. Being anchored in reality simplifies life; we need not concoct, remember, or fight to defend our lies.

Authenticity and steadfastness are additional graces for the world. Saint Thomas More, the “Man for All Seasons” who was killed by King Henry VIII in a conflict over truth-telling, said (under prior circumstances!), “… Everyone is rich, for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?”

Padre Pio (1887-1968), the Franciscan saint known for the power of his simplicity, boiled down his advice from experience: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”

. . .

These remedies for anxiety, along with insights into our post-truth quandary, can be the gifts we bring to others, or at least to ourselves, during National Mental Health Awareness Month.

We need to make America more hopeful—not through political or technological projects which ultimately could control us, but through the uniquely human feat of exercising control while surrendering it.

We also need to make America truthful again, incentivizing honesty through a culture of reconciliation and disincentivizing deceit by exposing its huge cost via news stories about corruption and personal stories touching hearts. This mission deserves its own month of awareness and its own spiritual therapy.

Meanwhile, ponder this riddle of the month: What’s the difference between an anxiety-sufferer and a mystic? The anxiety-sufferer believes the universe is conspiring against him; the mystic believes the universe is conspiring in his favor.

Image from Microsoft Bing’s AI design function. Note what I deem to be an AI error: The handle for the medicine cabinet door in on the inside.

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