A part of the reasons for a lot of human mental health issues are that the conditions that we evolved in are no longer true (generally). Basic survival was a co

A part of the reasons for a lot of human mental health issues are that the conditions that we evolved in are no longer true (generally). Basic survival was a constant, life or death struggle and states like anxiety were often a readiness factor for real dangers. Remove those dangers, and remove most of the struggle (although we will always re-define what struggle is) and we're a bit like fish out of water. We're still trying to adapt. I took Effexor (Venlafaxine) for a few years due to severe social anxiety along with a couple of other issues. It had an enormous impact on me, dramatically reducing virtually all anxiety. It did for sure remove emotion in a lot of contexts, particularly remote empathy type situations. On the flip side it made me much more rational -- suddenly remote risks and dangers just didn't raise alarm anymore. I stopped taking it because it was making me sleepy almost all the time and....the anxiety never returned. It's like a medically-induced cognitive behavioral therapy, but I really worried about a return of those social and avoidant behaviors...but they never did.