New York City is very often called the greatest city on Earth, and there’s a lot of reason to justify such a statement.
It’s endlessly stimulating to all 5 senses, and there’s always so much going on that it’s almost impossible to get bored.
That’s largely why so many people want to move here and why so many who leave feel that they’re lacking afterward.
However, beyond all the excitement and energy, there’s a dark side.
That very same intensity that makes many feel alive also makes anxiety treatment in NYC more in-demand than in almost any other part of the country.
But Why?
The truth is that we’re a species that evolved in small groups.
For most of the time our species has existed, humans lived in societies with fewer than 300 members.
That was true all the way up until the advent of agriculture around 12,000 years ago.
It was agriculture that enabled humans to gather in larger groups than a purely hunter-gatherer lifestyle could support.
While this single innovation is more responsible for human civilization than any other, it came at a cost.
There’s a reason why you’re searching for information about anxiety treatment in NYC while your Neolithic ancestors probably didn’t even have a word for “anxiety” or “mental health.”
And no, the reason isn’t that you’re just “weak” or something.
It’s much deeper than that.
Modernity Is Actually Incredibly Unnatural For Us
For you see, 12,000 years is nothing compared to the total time that our species and the others we are descended from have been living on Earth.
For the vast majority of the time that our ancestors lived and evolved, they did so in groups that rarely exceeded 300.
That’s also why our brains aren’t really even capable of effectively managing meaningful relationships with more than around 150 other people at any given time.
And while there might be some unusually gifted people who can juggle a few more than 150 meaningful relationships, those individuals are exceedingly rare.
The fact is that your brain is biologically incapable of processing any more than that.
You Don’t Actually Live In NYC
Ok, in the most literal and technical sense, you do.
However, even though you’re seeking out anxiety treatment in NYC, the reality at a deeper level that’s more true to your experience is that you live in a village…
It’s just that your village is spread out over a much greater distance than humans were always used to, and it’s also running up beside and against many other villages.
Your grocery store might be in one place while your job or school is in a totally different part of the city.
And you’ll have to pass through countless other villages to get between those places, probably riding on the subway with a bunch of other strangers you can’t really read.
Are those strangers friendly, neutral, or hostile?
Who are they?
Consciously, you might not be thinking these things, but your ancient hunter-gatherer brain is.
If you live in Brooklyn, how often do you really go to Staten Island or even venture outside of Brooklyn?
How about the other parts of the NYC metro area beyond the original 5 Boroughs?
On a daily basis, you either don’t leave your own borough or you only do so for work or school, spending almost all of your time in your own neighborhood and interacting with only a small number of familiar people (villagers).
Yet, beyond your neighborhood/village, there are no vast open fields, expansive forests, or even a beach you can quickly get to.
All around you, for as far as your brain can realistically process, you are surrounded by more and more villages, any one of which could be hostile.
And collectively, they create an environment in which you can’t ever hear silence or see the stars at night.
Where you actually live is your own village, but that village is not the kind of village your ancestors would have lived in, and it doesn’t even produce its own food.
Villages On Top of Villages
As far as your ancient hunter-gatherer brain is concerned, the number of those other villages, some of which are friendly and many of which are hostile or confusingly alien, is an infinite number.
That might as well be an infinite number of people because it’s as incomprehensible to your social caveman brain as infinity is.
This fact overwhelms your brain, to say nothing of the constant barrage of noises, flashing lights, digital screens, languages/accents, and other things demanding your attention.
You are not naturally equipped to deal with any of this.
Or at least, you’re not naturally equipped to deal with all of it at once.
OK, So What’s The Solution?
Well, obviously, if you’re feeling overburdened by anxiety in NYC, the simple answer is anxiety treatment in NYC.
Yes, you don’t necessarily have to evacuate the Big Apple and retreat to the Midwest in search of a more agrarian lifestyle in a smaller city.
In fact, unless you were going to move to a town with less than a few thousand people and commit to socializing in person a lot, you’d likely encounter most of the same problems.
Even ancient cities like Babylon and Cahokia were overstimulating for humans because, as we’ve covered already, anything over a few hundred people is more people than you can have meaningful relationships with simultaneously.
Start With Small Steps
To start your anxiety treatment in NYC, a good mental health professional can help you get to the root of whatever aspect of life in the big city is getting to you the most.
Then, once you’ve done that, you can work with them to implement some strategies and coping mechanisms to help you deal more effectively with the external stressors of life.
That could mean anything from getting a fidget toy and taking up a daily meditation habit to joining a support group or an amateur sports team.
Whatever the case, the primary aim is to ground you psychologically while also getting you more engaged with other humans in healthy, pro-social ways.
In other words, part of anxiety treatment in NYC should be re-integrating you into the social life of your proverbial village in ways your ancient ancestors would have understood.
This Problem Is Much Older Than You
As we mentioned, even the comparatively tiny cities of ancient Egypt and Sumeria were famously overstimulating and stressful places to live in.
(For context, Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt, only had 40,000-80,000 inhabitants at its peak… which made it possibly the largest city in the world at the time.)
And you don’t need to take our word for that.
Reading through any religious, historical, or administrative document from those eras will make it clear that most people were stressed out and grasping for anything or anyone that might make them feel more connected and give them a sense of purpose.
From Abraham fleeing the city of Ur to virtually every story we have from ancient Rome, it has been known for millennia that cities just have a way of driving people crazy.