Combating Anxiety in a World of Uncertainty

Stressful events like the COVID-19 pandemic, global conflict, divisive politics, inflation, and the threat of recession have strained people’s mental health in recent years. This sentiment is echoed in data collected by the Mental Health Foundation, which found that 37.1% of women and 29.8% of men now live with high levels of anxiety.

While you cannot control worldwide crises, you can control how you respond to them. Retaining a sense of control can improve your response to stressful events and help you becom e more resilient. Taking control of your actions may help lessen your anxiety, resulting in a calmer life.

A few proactive measures can do much to alleviate your anxiety. Taking proactive steps, such as working with a therapist or creating an emergency plan, can offer peace of mind and give you tools to stay safe and calm when global events impact your life.

Mental Health Support

Creating action plans and reducing social media use can meaningfully improve your mental health and help you regain a sense of control. However, if you’re living with long-term anxiety, you need to contact a mental health professional who can give you tools to improve your wellbeing. Data collected by the American Psychiatric Association shows that 75% of people benefit from therapy. Types of therapeutic services include:

Cognitive behavioral psychology (CBT);
Interpersonal therapy (IPT);
Dialectical behavior therapy;
Psychodynamic therapy.

You can also explore alternative therapies such as animal-assisted therapy and creative arts therapy. If you discover that your children are also living with anxiety, you may want to explore play-based therapy. Working with a therapist can be particularly useful if you live with social anxiety, as many therapeutic services are designed to give you tools that you can utilize during conversations with others.

It is crucial to spend time searching for the right therapist. Some therapists won’t align with your needs, while others won’t offer the services you’re looking for. You can get the ball rolling by talking to a primary care provider who may also provide treatment involving medication.

Creating an Action Plan

Putting together an emergency plan is a great way to reclaim a sense of control over your life. A detailed disaster plan can also help you respond properly when an emergency strikes. The perfect disaster response plan should include the following:

A shelter-in-place strategy;
Emergency evacuation routes;
Communication channels to connect with a wider family;
Easy access to emergency response kits.

Creating an appropriate action plan is particularly important today, as scientists believe the risk of large-scale pandemics is increasing. This worry prediction is due to climate change, deforestation, globalization, and increased antimicrobial resistance. By creating an emergency response plan, you can protect your household during a surge in infections and minimize the risk of transmission. Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic can alleviate your anxiety and help you sleep peacefully, knowing you’re stocked up and prepared should another pandemic strike.

Staying Prepared

Your disaster action plan should help you respond quickly to an emergency like a wildfire or pandemic. However, if you want your plan to work, you must take proactive steps to ensure you have the necessary resources to respond correctly. Start by creating a food storage shed that ensures you’re always stocked with plenty of goods. A disaster-ready food storage shed should include:

A clear organization system that labels foods by type and use-by date;
Hanging baskets for fresh produce like onions;
Sacks of potatoes stored on breathable pallets;
Pest deterrents like peppermint oils and caulking;
Air-tight containers for sugar and flour.

Taking steps to protect your food storage can save you money and alleviate anxiety. It’s much easier to see out an extreme weather event or surge in transmissions when you’re well-stocked at home, and you won’t need to fret about pests spoiling your food when you follow food storage best practices. Storing bulk food items can help you support your community in a crisis, too, as others are unlikely to have stocked up on staple goods like flour, grains, and long-lasting protein sources.

Social Media

Social sites like Facebook and Instagram can help you learn about emergencies and ensure that you stay up to date with emerging challenges like wildfires or floods. However, overusing social media can put a real strain on your mental health and may worsen your anxiety. When used too often, social media affects your well-being and can lead to:

Lower self-esteem;
Increased feelings of loneliness and social isolation;
Disruptions to your sleep patterns;
Impaired relationships with friends and family.

If you suspect you are addicted to social media, set boundaries to limit screen time and de-stress. For example, if you tend to doom scroll at night before sleeping, consider turning your phone off an hour before your usual bedtime. Doing so will help you form healthier habits and empower your efforts to use social media more mindfully.

Conclusion

Combatting anxiety in an increasingly uncertain world can be a real challenge. However, you can take control of your symptoms by working with a mental health professional and taking proactive steps to protect your family. Even simple changes like keeping a large food store can alleviate your fears about the future and help you respond appropriately when facing a pandemic or a natural disaster.

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About the Author: Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter, @KatieBWrites93.

Photo by Vasilis Caravitis on Unsplash

The opinions and views expressed in any guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of www.rtor.org or its sponsor, Laurel House, Inc. The author and www.rtor.org have no affiliations with any products or services mentioned in the article or linked to therein. Guest Authors may have affiliations to products mentioned or linked to in their author bios.