America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety

June 19, 2024

(The Atlantic) – So youth in English-speaking Canada are becoming sadder faster than those in French-speaking Canada, and measures of teen suicidality are rising in the Anglosphere but less so in similar less-English-speaking countries.

What’s the deal with Anglosphere despair? Maybe this is a statistical illusion that will evaporate with more research. Maybe speaking English is a rough proxy for economic development, and this is mostly about affluent countries with lots of teen smartphone use. I couldn’t find any papers on the subject of why language would correlate with mental health for teenagers. Helliwell, a renowned expert of international happiness research, didn’t know of any comprehensive analysis on the subject either.

But after several conversations with happiness experts and psychologists, I’ve cobbled together a tentative theory. We’re seeing the international transmission of a novel Western theory of mental health. It’s the globalization of Western—and, just maybe, American—despair. (Read More)