empathy with the chronically anxious

I feel that the greatest loss of time in my life has been empathising with anxious people. I've been quite good at it because it has been my natural environment, but I am not sure it is always a profitable expense. 

Malaysia is famously anxious - one of our national tropes is pent-up anxiety, and we contributed the word 'amok' to the English. I have written to a greater extent on this before. 

My parents, only one of whom was born in Malaysia, were both anxious wrecks for the most part.

So that is how it became my natural environment, two levels deep around me.

Nowadays I expend some energy here and there in this activity, but generally I am wary of taking profits upfront, as anxiety tends to be a debilitating condition for those who have it chronically. They do not often get well fast enough to make superficial therapy a well-paid endeavour. Professional therapists will string this out and it is a goldmine. I do not prefer to participate in that. 

Maybe one day, I will.