We are currently living through a situation that, for the vast majority of us is completely new. There exists a new threat to our physical and mental health. For many of us, financial instability has become a new norm and the guidance for how we ‘should’ live our lives seems to have done a 180 degree turn. We have transitioned from being encouraged to socialise and connect with others, to being asked to isolate ourselves to protect our services. We have been advised to limit our exercise outdoors, rather than engage in activity out of the home and we have shifted from a society that tells us to buy what we want, to government messages that tell us to only buy what we need.
These transitions create great uncertainty in our lives and though we may try to regain control, there is very little that we can do as individuals about events such as a global pandemic and changes in the economy. This can, of course lead to us feeling anxious, frustrated and distressed.
Further to this, and perhaps most devastatingly in terms of our mental health, turning on the news causes us to experience a significant increase in exposure to scary and difficult information. Daily death statistics and projections obviously cause us to worry and feel that the future is bleak. CBT can help us with this in two ways.
Firstly, Separating Fact from Unhelpful Thought.
Often when we experience high levels of anxiety or panic it can lead us to unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. We have seen this at the early stages of the pandemic where people began panic buying, despite there being no shortages of food or toilet paper. As a result, it is important to recognise what is fact and what is unhelpful thought. An easy way to test for this, is to remember that if our thoughts or understandings are true, they will be true for others. Illustrating this with a few examples may help:
Unhelpful thought:
‘I am going to die from Covid-19’
Fact:
Is it true that everyone else will also die? The World Health Organisation has said that less than 5% of people will die from the disease. Thus the vast majority, over 95% of us, are not in life threatening danger from the pandemic.
Unhelpful thought
‘I will never be safe again’
Fact:
Is it true that others will never be safe again? Throughout history there are examples of pandemics that have been dangerous to human life but human life has continued. Further to this, health care is currently the best that it has ever been.
Unhelpful thought:
‘I will lose my job because of the economy’.
Fact:
Some other people may lose their job, but as above, there have been global recessions before and the economy (and employment rates) have returned to normal.
Unhelpful thought:
‘I feel so anxious; I am sure when I panic that I have symptoms’
Fact:
When other people experience anxiety, it does not place them at risk of becoming physically unwell. There is no proven correlation between having anxiety symptoms and Corona Virus.
Secondly, Recognising What We Can and Can’t Control
To manage this uncertainty, it is also so important in situations like these to use CBT skills that can help us recognise what we can and can’t control. If the current pandemic is confirmation of anything, it is proof that it is impossible to predict the future.
When we turn on the news, however, there are consistent reports of how bad things are and how bad things may become. It is not a shock to hear that the media has a significant impact on the way that we feel fear and uncertainty. In a study by Nellis and Savage (2012) it was demonstrated that consumption of media related to terrorism increased individual’s worry about their own and others, level of safety.
But why is it negative? Well, studies have shown that we are more likely to listen to negative than positive information from the media and so news media that focuses on this will, by definition, be more successful (Suroka and McAdams, 2015). With the media filling us with negative information about the world and the pandemic, it might be helpful to have a look at what we can and can’t control.
What we can’t control:
The content of the media.
The actions of politicians.
The impact or changes to the economy.
The impact of the pandemic on society.
The creation of a vaccine
Whether a lockdown exists
What we can control:
Our own consumption of the media.
Our own behaviour to others.
How healthy our lifestyle is.
How we spend our time at home.
Attempting to manage this uncertainty by trying to control the world around us and predict the future, can lead us to anxiety and panic and feeling helpless. This can be helped by recognising the difference between what we can do something about and then accepting what we cannot. As the above table demonstrates, there is very little that we can do about the impact of the pandemic on a national scale, but we can do something about the way that we behave day to day in our own lives, the way that we treat others and the way that we consume information.
Imagine being late for a flight. You are already in the taxi, you have your passport and boarding pass in hand. There is nothing else you can do in this situation to speed up the taxi, it will take as long as it takes. Worrying will not change the time the journey to the airport takes, but it will change how distressing it is.
Our current situation is similar. The pandemic is happening. Worrying about how it will impact on our lives is not only distressing, but it does not change the pandemic itself, only how distressing it may be for us. It may be difficult to stop seeking stories of what may happen during or after this period of lockdown, but taking a little break and returning to areas of life where you do have control, may make life feel a little more certain and a little less worrying.