Life is about judgement – every conscious decision we make determines our lives. Some consequences of our decision-making can be trivial but others are fundamental. Even our apparent failure to make a decision is, in reality, a choice that has an impact. Though humans may believe they can predict the outcome of their decisions, life insists on presenting a spectrum of uncertainties and it is those uncertainties that lead to anxiety: it is the very unpredictability of the future that so often causes stress.
The Covid pandemic has been the cause of much stress because of its novelty and disastrous impact on health: death or Long Covid for the unlucky ones. Authorities, along with a regime of vaccinations, have tried to reduce infections through a range of preventative actions like handwashing, face masks and social distancing. However, because of the Covid virus' ability to mutate, just as people believe that vaccines and other preventative measures are taming the disease a variation emerges causing a new wave of infections.
Understandably, thanks to Covid, there has been an increase not only in anxiety but, sadly, as the data shows, in anxiety disorders, undermining people's mental health. An anxiety disorder is a response 'to certain things and situations with fear and dread'. People suffering from an anxiety disorder can experience physical signs of their mental condition, such as a pounding heart, sweating and, in some cases, a panic attack, resulting in a range of alarming symptoms: chills, trembling, breathing problems, dizziness, feelings of weakness, tingly or numb hands, chest pains, stomach pains, and nausea.
Anxiety around Covid has been shown to be often be driven by the plethora of information on the disease bombarding news and social media. Excessive amounts of information, along with continually changing government instructions, has led to high levels of stress. Evidence also reveals that some people feel overwhelmed and exhausted by the constant stream of information so that they turn off and consequently become less informed about government guidelines and measures to prevent infections, making themselves more vulnerable to Covid.
Whether we seek more information from our news sources or insulate ourselves by avoiding information we are exercising a judgement that has implications for both our level of anxiety and our general well-being. Though it might be difficult to accept the idea that anxiety has any benefits, in evolutionary terms anxiety has created a state of caution and alertness that has been an important 'spoke in the wheel' of survival for homo sapiens.
Therefore, we should accept that anxiety is a 'normal' reaction to stressful situations and can be beneficial by alerting us to dangers and helping us pay attention to the threats around us. In reaction to the Covid pandemic there is a need to exercise a balanced judgement, recognising anxiety's evolutionary purpose and not allowing it to overwhelm us so that our individual decisons reflect a state of mind that results in both calm and temperate behaviour.