Do I struggle with ''Status Anxiety'' ?

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I had never heard of Status Anxiety until last night when I had heard a woman talking on a video about it. According to the book with the same name written by Alain de Botton, Status anxiety can be defined as the constant tension or fear of being perceived as ''unsuccessful'' by society in materialistic terms. It explains why today, some individuals constantly try to outsmart others to climb up the social ladder. Even something called Meritocracy can be a cause of status anxiety, believing that only the talented and the meritorious will get to the top of the social ladder and snobbery, envy and lovelessness are other causes too.

I think you have an inferiority complex

Talking to a therapist about it might be a good thing.

I try not to compare myself to others. To me, life is about finding happiness whenever possible and helping others, especially in small ways, whenever I can.

People can seem extremely successful but be desperately unhappy and feel unsatisfied for whatever reason. To me, that’s not true success.

Seems like a common problem. Look at the number of parents who have their children, even very young ones, who have their kids in tons of activities and educational programs because they are afraid their children will "fall behind" and be total failures at life.

You sound like you compare yourself to other people a lot, Chris & I think it is unhealthy to be constantly doing this.

Maybe you should take a break from social media. Places like Facebook are bad for people who compare themselves to others a lot. And it is sad because Facebook is just a curated dilution of a persons life in most cases, sacrificing the misery and normality of life for snapshots of smiling, posturing photos, that don't really tell you anything about who a person is.

I've come to the conclusion that a lot of really unpleasant things we're stuck thinking about in life, including status anxiety, have everything to do with the liabilities our environments force on us. Like mafioso protection rackets they're offers we can't refuse.

I also think it's modern society, and modern society alone, that says if you're doing something and you're miserable doing it then it must be a pathology you need to work through. It depends whether the consequences of not thinking the thing or not having it at the front of your mind puts you even worse in harms way.

If you believe you're being a bit brutal on yourself - you might find a way to lighten that up but you'd be wise to lighten up in a way that doesn't change any of your behavior expectations from other people. Otherwise if it involves the expectation that you'll be treated fairly that's where things get really dangerous.

This is actually the first time I have heard of this. I thought maybe it meant that someone was anxious about their dating status, or lack of one.

I seem to think people like Andrew Tate tell men that in order to be successful they ''have'' to get muscles, buy a fancy car or land rover etc and that to some men hearing that who feel they are struggling with life and don't feel they have achieved much success, it makes them seem like a ''failure'' and can cause Status Anxiety.

Why? Why compare yourself to others? I don’t understand.

Most people don’t have any of those things.

Probably. The shoe fits based on your many posts here describing your desire to be, and be seen as, some successful businessman.

Maybe it's a thing. First I've ever heard that label. I think society & medicine suffer from trying to label absolutely everything with some unique identifier as a new disorder or condition. Are you anxious? Possibly. Do you wish you had a higher socioeconomic status? Yes. Is it in some unhealthy obsessive way? Seems so. Is this new label appropriate? Sure, if you like it. Do we need it as a society? Debatable. People are simply unhealthy and imbalanced and need to address their issues as best they can. Maybe little niche micro labels help some patients & doctors do that I guess.

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