Anxiety as a Weapon From Public Secret to Collective Solidarity

Anxiety as a Weapon reframes anxiety not as a personal failing but as a response to the deep social, economic, and political instabilities of our time. Challenging a culture that promotes self-blame and individual solutions to stress—from therapy apps to mindfulness courses—this book exposes how systemic forces like precarious labour, austerity, and social disconnection fuel widespread psychological and emotional distress. Rather than diagnosing individuals as defective, it exposes how dominant narratives, technologies, and institutions isolate and shame people, pushing them to internalize suffering and acquiesce in the commodification of self-care. Drawing on historical and empirical research, it introduces the concept of “anxious solidarity”: a powerful, collective response to the atomizing pressures of neoliberal capitalism. By tracing the structural roots of anxiety and critiquing the mainstream mental health solutions on offer, the book provides a framework for transforming anxiousness into a means for connection, resistance, and widespread social change. It is both a critique and a call to action.

About the Author

A.T. (Adam) Kingsmith is a political economist with an interest in how systemic forces—from precarious work to algorithmic bias—manufacture mental distress. His work challenges the individualization of anxiety, exposing how neoliberalism commodifies self-care while isolating sufferers. As a professor at Humber College and co-investigator on mental health equity research, he collaborates with unions and communities to trace distress to its structural roots. Adam co-founded EIQ Technologies Inc. to develop emotion-AI tools that prioritize collective well-being over profit, bridging theory with applied solutions. Anxiety as a Weapon crystallizes this ongoing work: transforming individual anxiousness into “anxious solidarity”—a powerful catalyst for connection and social change. He holds a PhD from York University.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.