This Article by Alex Williams for Carlos Slim’s Blog caught my attention, mine not being of the hyper-affected, disordered variety (thinking disordered, yes…).

According to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, some 38 percent of girls ages 13 through 17, and 26 percent of boys, have an anxiety disorder. On college campuses, anxiety is running well ahead of depression as the most common mental health concern, according to a 2016 national study of more than 150,000 students by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University. Meanwhile, the number of web searches involving the term has nearly doubled over the last five years, according to Google Trends. (The trendline for “depression” was relatively flat.)

To Kai Wright, the host of the politically themed podcast “The United States of Anxiety” from WNYC, which debuted this past fall, such numbers are all too explicable. “We’ve been at war since 2003, we’ve seen two recessions,” Mr. Wright said. “Just digital life alone has been a massive change. Work life has changed. Everything we consider to be normal has changed. And nobody seems to trust the people in charge to tell them where they fit into the future.”

For “On Edge,” Ms. Petersen, a longtime reporter for The Wall Street Journal, traveled back to her alma mater, the University of Michigan, to talk to students about stress. One student, who has A.D.H.D., anxiety and depression, said the pressure began building in middle school when she realized she had to be at the top of her class to get into high school honors classes, which she needed to get into Advanced Placement classes, which she needed to get into college.

330 Million people from NY to CA, and 329.8 Million of them are on some sort of drug(s). I, myself, rely on cigar tobacco, coffee, and the periodic beer. Sans those, an axe. See, I’m one of you.

American Psycho / Lionsgate.

The article resonated with my slightly, due to the first recounted horror – that of a delayed text response. No, I’m not the anxious texter – waiting for the textee to respond within 15 sec. before I take to the socials for therapy. I really don’t care… No, I’m the anxiety-inducing textee himself. Or callee, emailee, whater-ee… If you’re my daughter or my mother, odds are I will answer right away. For about five other people I do my best to respond ASAP. A few dozen more are on the “remember to get back to” list or the concurrent “she was hot” list. Everyone else … get on Twitter or get over it.

I wish I had some advice for the legion of pill poppers out there. I truly wish I could write something that would take the edge off. Something to break the dependence on chemical comfort and reduce the urge to psychoactively alter the brain. (TeeVee and sugar are the absolute worst of those dreadful drugs by the way, not Prosac).

But, honestly, I can’t come up with a thing tonight. It is a very worrisome, troublesome world. A world and an age of utter insanity. Some need the dope to survive. They should take it. Others should reflect on why they feel the need to medicate, why they feel … whatever. To them, I say: reflect on it and then let it go.

Drink water. Get some sleep. Smoke a cigar. Go for a walk. Write something. Lift something. Hit something. Run. Flirt. Shout. Leave the city. Read a book. Buy a gun. Relax. Turn off that infernal glowing box from hell in the living room.

Come to think of it, all that sounds like advice. And I am confident it will be well received and used. Problems solved.

You’re welcome. Ring ya back when I get to it…