Rhea, 21, asked, twirling the strap of her backpack nervously. Her mother looked up from the newspaper, startled.
"Anxious? Sure, I guess, but isn't that just stress?"
Rhea shook her head. "No, it's different. It's like this constant, buzzing worry in my chest, even when nothing bad is happening. Sometimes it's panic. Sometimes it's I don't know just being scared of everything."
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Her mother paused, searching for her memories. "When I was your age we didn't even have a word for this. We never called it anxiety. We just dealt with life, I suppose. School, exams, jobs, relationships. But these words 'panic attack,' 'generalised anxiety disorder,' 'social anxiety' I never knew they existed."
Rhea nodded. "Exactly. It's not just stress any more. Everything feels amplified the pressure to succeed. The news, social media, climate change even just scrolling through Instagram can be exhausting."
In that quiet kitchen, the generational gap was palpable. One had lived through life mostly offline, surviving challenges without naming them. The other navigated a world hyperconnected, hyperaware, and yet, somehow, more anxious than anyone expected.
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