America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wreck

“According to the World Health Organization, as well as being one of the least-happy developed countries in the world, the United States is, by a wide margin, also the most anxious, with nearly a third of Americans likely to suffer from an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. 7 A 2012 report by the American Psychological Association warned that the nation was on the verge of a “stress-induced public health crisis.” 8 There are many reasons why life in America is likely to produce anxiety compared to other developed nations: long working hours without paid vacation time for many, insecure employment conditions with little legal protection for workers, inequality, and the lack of universal health care coverage, to name a few. The happiness-seeking culture is clearly supposed to be part of the solution, but perhaps it is actually part of the problem. Perhaps America’s precocious levels of anxiety are happening not just in spite of the great national happiness rat race but also in part because of it.”

— America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks by Ruth Whippman

(And see... Happiness is Other People, Is the Present Really a Gift?)