anxiety-
Explanation
The Joke
A woman who appears to be a therapist or group leader addresses a group of people, telling them: "Okay everyone, now I want you to just visualize. Now worries. Think about all the little anxieties you have. It's okay. You're safe here." In the next panel, the group's anxieties have literally materialized as a dark, menacing cloud or creature, and someone remarks, "Now you have so many anxieties, they materialized. Never seen that before." One person notes, "Man, this thing is heavy."
In the following panels, a man from the group protests: "I guess I'm just one more anxious person in an anxious society!" but the therapist corrects him: "No. You are weird and different and your differences are bad." He asks "Can I go now?" and she responds with "Great idea! Let's see if following it out works!" The final panel shows the group celebrating: "Hooray! It worked!" with apparent sarcasm or hollow enthusiasm.
The Humor
The comic satirizes several things simultaneously. First, it mocks the kind of well-meaning therapeutic exercises (guided visualization, mindfulness) that can sometimes feel superficial when dealing with serious anxiety. The idea that focusing on your anxieties would cause them to physically manifest is a darkly funny literalization of how these exercises can sometimes feel counterproductive -- dwelling on anxiety can make it worse. Second, the therapist's response that the anxious person is "weird and different and your differences are bad" is a savage inversion of the typical therapeutic reassurance. Instead of normalizing the person's feelings, she pathologizes them. The final "Hooray! It worked!" ending suggests a hollow resolution where nothing was actually fixed, satirizing the sometimes performative nature of group therapy or self-help culture.