The Age of Anxiety: How mental health went from taboo to public concern

A columnist reflects on how a depression article written in 2005 seemed fresh and surprising to the media, as soft topics had not yet moved to the forefront. Since then, the concept of mental health has become widely recognized and important in society. Today we live in an age of anxiety, where psychological challenges have become an integral part of everyday life.

Two decades ago, the topic of mental health was almost non-existent in Estonian media. When a columnist wrote her first story about depression in 2005, readers received it as a rare novelty, in the aftershocks of cowboy capitalism, so-called soft topics had not yet reached the centre of public debate.

A few years passed before the concept of "mental health" became intelligible and meaningful to the broader public. Today, this concept is self-evident in everyday conversation, in schools, workplaces, political speeches, and media texts.

Yet the paradox is clear: the more we talk about mental health, the more anxious society seems to become. Psychologists point out that the 21st century is shaping up as an age of anxiety, where constant information overload, uncertainty, and social comparison erode people's inner equilibrium.

The question is no longer whether mental health is important, that is indisputable. The real question is how we make conscious choices in our daily lives to manage waves of anxiety and maintain inner peace. The role of a good guide to life is precisely this: not to provide answers, but to help ask the right questions.