Frustrations with the modern world feed anxiety - Yorkshire Post Letters

Stop the world, I want to get off. Everyday we see, hear, and read about more and more people, of all ages, in most countries suffering from stress, anxiety, worry, fatigue, mental illness - why?

Many have offered reasons like Covid, the Lockdowns, cost of living rises, unemployment, increase in crime, extreme frustration, not being listened to, illness, unable to trust anyone.

All of these things concern someone somewhere, but I firmly believe it is often a more simple straight forward situation that is causing so much harm.

The world has gone mad. Its priorities are wrong. The pace of life is too fast, we live in ‘tick box’ times. Almost every task, no matter how simple, now has to be done online. Why?

It is virtually impossible to talk directly to a person nowadays in any big business, bank, the NHS, the police, travel companies, Government ministers, finance and insurance companies, and many others. What were simple tasks for all of us, no longer are.

The computer is king, the internet, whilst having a good side, has many, evil, dark areas.

Today's machines cannot answer so many questions and problems. I am 77, and like many my age, feel utterly disregarded and long for the good old days to return.

I had a very happy life as a child, a very good school, enormous fun, pleasure, satisfaction in work-job as a farm machinery salesman, and as a lawn salesman, and immense pleasure from playing cricket and hockey, a hobby of model railways and great overseas holidays, especially in Germany.

So many of today's policies make life unnecessarily difficult and frustrating, i.e. closing railway ticket offices. I was never lonely or bored.

The people in charge seem to regard any customer as a nuisance. My age group, on the whole, are the lucky ones, I do not envy today's young. We need a rethink, end greed and the mania for growth.

We need to learn to communicate and talk to one another again, and those in power need to listen. No wonder suicide rates are at an all time high. It need not to be like it is.