There are plenty of places to point fingers: your phone, the president, climate change, the recession, FOMO, divorce, social media, student debt, terrorism, the 24-hour news cycle, the economy, “the economy,” living farther from family, toxins in your gut, too many choices, too little sleep, too little sex. Or maybe we’re just overdiagnosing anxiety and actually, everything’s fine.
Or maybe reduced stigma against mental health combined with wider access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act has allowed more people to seek help. I don't think anxiety is any more prevalent than it was before; I think more of us are talking about it.