how Japan and America view anxiety are remarkably different yet oddly similar.
Japan outright ignores it or it’s played for comedy/something’s wrong with you, and in America we acknowledge it as serious but ask that the sufferers take meds (in some families, not all) or just outright call the sufferer weird and ignore that it exists like its a cold or something or make the suffering worse because we have some obsession with being “normal”.
It sounds like Japan just sees it as something to overcome and they don’t take it with the seriousness it deserves. But in America they just put in the bare minimum effort into making it serious. I can’t tell which is worst.
BOTH.
In Japan also sometimes people with anxiety or any mental illness are also told to commit suicide to “protect the family’s honour” and “save society a burden.” This may also apply to people with physical disabilities or people who got injured as well.
Or sometimes they’re put in house arrest. Most hikikomoris are people with depression or anxiety that their families forcibly locked up to save face.
As bad as America can be about it, I don’t think it can EVER get worse than that.
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