Generation Anxiety: Laura Mvula

Vallari Saxena

The World Health Organisation has found that around 250 million people in the world suffer from an anxiety disorder of some kind. It can affect anyone, no matter their gender, age or profession - however, women are twice as likely to experience anxiety as men. The disorder can often dictate one’s life, its level of intensity varying from allowing an individual to be functional on a daily basis to feeling absolutely paralysed. Generation Anxiety (2017) is a BBC Woman’s Hour documentary, where British singer-songwriter Laura Mvula opens up about her struggles with anxiety and is on a quest to find out why we, as a generation, struggle so intensely with the disorder. 

Coming from a tight knit family and community, Mvula ’s anxiety snuck up on her following the event of her parents deciding to split up. Marriage had always been a rigid convention of her upbringing, and the divorce made her question everything she’d ever known, “It felt like 25 years of being lied to. My way of dealing with it was not dealing with it.” Traumatic life events such as these that shake the very foundation of the world one has built around them are correlated with the onset of anxiety and depression. She explains that simple things that she used to take for granted, such as taking a walk or reading a book by herself, became much more complicated than they needed to be. The episodes were the worst when she was on her own, and she felt intense monophobia. The embarrassment and guilt she felt for not being able to do things like sleep or step into another room for a minute by herself made her extremely upset. The transition from moving away from her close knit, expressive family to feeling like it was a lie left her feeling like she was incapable of making it in the world as an individual unit - this stemmed from a deep mistrust in herself. 

The way in which one thinks about and deals with such events plays a big factor in in the level of stress and anxiety they feel. Pushing away her feelings and not talking about them caused psychological and physiological manifestations of the disorder - her body would start spasming, she’d have difficulty swallowing and feel as though she were struggling to stay in her skin. Her quick and painless rise to fame further heightened her anxiety, especially as she tried to keep the crippling panic attacks, brought on at unpredictable times, out of the public eye. 

Mvula is not the only figure in the public eye dealing with such issues and, in her documentary, seeks to find out why generation Y - consisting of those born in the 80s and 90s - is caught up in this sweeping anxiety epidemic. Marjorie Wallace, the founder of a mental health charity called SANE, sheds some light on the issue by explaining that individuals today feel fragmented, as though they have no world they belong to - as though they don’t have real secure relationships or role models to tether themselves to. The past few decades have seen a large technological and cultural shift brought about by the rise of social media platforms, which might be the cause of this. It’s impossible to get away from the relentless pressure of constant comparison with celebrities and peer groups as well as the portrayal of one’s best life and self. 

In our world, the triggers for anxiety are so much higher than the traditional ones; constant connectivity, multitasking, always checking for notifications puts one on edge. The demand is so much higher for public figures; people want more and more everyday, so that the online world infringes on their personal space, and eventually it’s hard to tell them apart. In the midst of these demands and portraying the picture perfect life, they're dealing with various personal issues and stresses that they keep to themselves for the fear of being attacked, ridiculed or even just questioned about things they might not be willing or ready to talk about. This is increasingly hard to do when bouts of anxiety and uncontrollable panic attacks seize them while under public scrutiny. 

While the online world is clearly a source of anxiety for millennials, Mvula stresses the ways in which it has also helped others with their anxiety. More and more, celebrities are using this online platform to help de-stigmatise mental health issues and share their stories; stories scores of people resonate with and find comfort within. Her documentary itself has met with immense online praise; her genuine and frank description of what she goes through has moved many to share their own stories, seek help and better cope with their stresses.     

Sources:

1. Lamont, Tom. “Laura Mvula: 'My Body Spasms. I Think I'm Going to Collapse'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Mar. 2016, www.theguardian.com/global/2016/mar/20/laura-mvula-interview-panic-attacks-music-anxiety-tom-lamont.
2. “Woman’s Hour - Laura Mvula: Generation Anxiety.” BBC, BBC, 10 Apr. 2017, www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04xnjnj/womans-hour-laura-mvula-generation-anxiety.
3. University of Liverpool. "Traumatic life events biggest cause of anxiety, depression." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 October 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131016213223.htm>.