Pandemic Panic? Here’s a Way to Regain Your Calm
Anxiety thrives on uncertainty. And, as the coronavirus spreads, our unanswered questions can make us feel vulnerable or fearful. “Will it come to my community” or “Am I at risk?’
“We’ve got national anxiety at the moment, a kind of shared stress, and we are all in a state of extreme uncertainty,” says Catherine Belling, an associate professor at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, who studies the role of fear and anxiety in health care.
And here’s a catch-22: The more you stress, the more vulnerable you can become to viruses, because stress can dampen your immune response. But there are steps you can take to push back against the communal anxiety.
1. Plan ahead to feel more in control
Excerpted from NPR
