Are There Ways to Manage Anxiety Related to COVID-19?

After a tragedy, whether natural or man-made, we know that an increase in stress, anxiety, depression, substance use or post-traumatic stress disorder often follows. But there are things individuals can do to help themselves, and things organizations can do to help others. Let’s look at a few of them.

Individual skills

We can practice skills rooted in stress management, mindfulness and self-compassion. First, we must recognize the current circumstances are legitimately stressful. Exercising, eating right, regulating sleep and keeping a routine as best you can will strengthen your body and mind to manage these very real stressors.

Next, we must practice self-kindness. If you’re an adult, you’ve already dealt with uncertainty and survived. Perhaps you’ve even thrived. Thinking “I can’t cope” and “This is too much for me” not only makes you feel worse; the thoughts are usually incorrect. Instead, research suggests that talking to yourself – the way a friend would talk to you, with accurate and helpful phrases – reduces anxiety. Say to yourself: “I’ve been through scary and uncertain things in the past and made it through.” Or “These past few weeks and months have been filled with uncertainty, but I’m still surviving.”

Another strategy that works: Find distance between yourself and your thoughts, the essence of mindfulness. For example: When experiencing an anxious thought, notice it, name it, then release it. You don’t need to “buy in” to the thought; instead, stay focused on the present moment.

Granted, it’s easy to get pulled into worrying about the future, or for that matter, dwelling on the past, particularly while bombarded by anxious thoughts or negative news. Truth is, no one knows what’s going to happen over the next few months. Staying in the present helps you detach from depressing or anxiety-provoking thoughts. In turn, you’ll feel a greater sense of control over the here and now.

Finally, be mindful of the quality and quantity of information you take in. In uncertain times, we try to calm our fears by gathering as much information as we can. But research has found the more media we consume, the higher the toll on our mental health. Be aware of what’s going on, of course – but don’t let yourself lose hours every day to news or social media.

I have adapted this answer from my original article in The Conversation

You have a choice to make when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.

Do you treat this time as an insurmountable threat that pits you against everyone else? This option entails making decisions based solely on protecting yourself and your loved ones: stockpiling supplies regardless of what that leaves for others; continuing to host small gatherings because you’re personally at lower risk; or taking no precautions because the effort seems futile.

Or do you treat the coronavirus as a collective challenge that will require shared sacrifices to achieve a difficult but not impossible goal? That option would mean taking recommended precautions: practicing social distancing, hand-washing and restricting travel. These actions might not be your most desired or convenient path as an individual, but they contribute to the broader social good, reducing the spread of COVID-19.

As a professor of psychology and licensed clinical psychologist who studies how people think differently when they’re anxious, I recognize this global pandemic has all the ingredients to fuel a threat-oriented mindset. The trajectory of the coronavirus is uncertain and unpredictable, the very features that fuel anxiety and threat-processing in the brain.

The way people process threatening events matters a lot for how well they’ll manage this period of uncertainty. Some identification of threat is useful and will mobilize you to action, but a rigid overestimation of threat makes you panic or immobilizes you.

Letting the threat dictate your response

When you perceive a situation as a dire threat, it changes how you process information.

No longer do you consider the pros and cons of your choices evenhandedly, looking at the situation from multiple perspectives. Instead, your attention narrows, selectively focusing on cues that reinforce your sense of danger and vulnerability.

Your interpretations become biased, so that you assume the worst when a situation is ambiguous – as almost all situations are.

And you preferentially remember information that confirms a prior belief that the world is a dangerous place and you don’t measure up.

Why is this a problem? After all, the world really is in the grip of an objectively dangerous pandemic. Paying attention to this threat seems vital for staying safe.

The issue occurs when you believe that your personal resources are insufficient to meet the demands of the situation. If you feel the threat is insurmountable, then you give up. Why try if you’re doomed to fail? And if you feel that your resources – be it food, money, time, energy – are inadequate or threatened, then you have nothing to share with others, and hoard what you can for yourself.

Feeling threatened can make you hyperfocused on monitoring for signs of danger, which can in turn mean consuming terrifying stories about COVID-19 almost nonstop. It’s important to stay informed, but prior research makes clear that people are more prone to mental health problems, like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, if they don’t limit media exposure. In turn, reading about COVID-19 all the time increases the perception of threat, further fueling the need to monitor for danger signs in a vicious cycle that makes the world seem ever scarier.

Better to conceive a threat as a challenge

It’s better for your mental health to see this time as a collective challenge – one that is extremely difficult but which can be met if everyone works together.

When you size something up as a challenge, it’s easier to rise to the occasion. Instead of withdrawing from the problem, you shift to problem-solving. People with this mindset draw on others to help, and they offer their own support to those in need. Research has shown that working collaboratively and helping others has great mental health benefits for the helper.

Research on cognitive behavior therapy shows that shifting one’s outlook to perceive something as a motivating challenge rather than an insurmountable threat can be a successful way to treat anxiety disorders.

Cognitive therapy promotes questioning your thoughts instead of assuming the first one that pops into your mind is the most helpful. An individual becomes a scientist, weighing the evidence for and against ideas to reach more balanced conclusions. You become an explorer, thinking flexibly to consider new approaches to solving problems. If you sniffle once, you don’t immediately assume you have COVID-19 – you maintain precautions, but also consider whether this month is when your allergies usually act up and see if allergy medicine works.

It would be ludicrous not to acknowledge the real threats the world faces right now, and the disproportionate impact this difficult time has on already marginalized communities. But you need not define this threat as insurmountable and get stuck there. Choose instead to work together – albeit remotely – and accept the coronavirus challenge. The shift from threat to challenge might just make it a little easier to stay home, to close the browser and stop reading about COVID-19 24/7, to wash your hands for a full 20 seconds and to buy just what you need at the store so others can do the same.

I have adapted this answer from my original article in The Conversation