Societal Anxiety, and How to Cope

When W.H. Auden wrote the poem The Age of Anxiety in 1947, he spoke of the human search for meaning and clarity in the increasingly industrialized and complicated world evolving in the wake of World War II. In the poem, Auden quips, “the world needs a wash and a week’s rest.” Many of us feel this way three-quarters of a century later as we daily witness violence, unrest, uncertainty, catastrophe, and vitriol in our society. We are traumatized by nonstop access to negative news stories, the replaying of violent images, and the hostile language and behavior that have seemingly become normalized and unchallenged in our society. It remains to be seen how we will ultimately view this time in our history from a psychological perspective but, anecdotally, I would argue that it has created a society-wide sense of unease, anxiety, and distress. Clients I work with express climate anxiety, election anxiety, news cycle burnout, and fear of violence. The long-term impact of living in this type of environment will surely have a serious psychological impact.

My practical “research” as a psychotherapist, drawn from my work with many adolescents and adults, indicates a few major concerns that affect many people at this moment in time:

Political anxiety. We are less than a week out from an attempted assassination on a former president. This alone could cause a sense of societal anxiety, as it flashes many of us back to the chaotic times of the 1960s and, more recently, to the attempt on the life of President Ronald Regan in 1981 or on that of Representative Gabby Giffords in 2011. Events like this remind us of how violent our society can be, particularly in times of great ideological division. Beyond singular events, many clients report a more general sense of anxiety and dread as they are constantly exposed to an increasingly negative and vitriolic political process.

Psychological Implications: In a severely divided and often angry country, we may experience feelings of isolation, hopelessness, resignation, distrust, and fear. These feelings can shatter our sense of connectedness and community, which have long been viewed as ways that we foster a sense of safety and acceptance.

Climate anxiety. Particularly, but not exclusively, among younger clients, I observe a theme of worry and dread about the state of our planet, accompanied by a sense that there is little we can do to reverse course. These clients, even at a young age, fear for the future, for their unborn children, and for the state of the world. From this type of anxiety often springs a hopelessness that can lead to depression.

Psychological Implications: When we do not feel safe in our environment, we are unable to live truly mindful lives. It is difficult to enjoy a summer day when our attention is focused on the climate seeming hotter than ever before. While this type of recognition can spur us to meaningful action, it can also result in severe anxiety that takes us out of the present moment.

Illness anxiety. The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be seen, even four years after the initial outbreak. On a societal scale, the pandemic shattered a general sense of safety regarding susceptibility to illness and disease. Individuals who had not previously experienced health anxiety began to exhibit anxious and phobic responses and to implement avoidant or unhealthy behaviors as a way to ensure a sense of safety. These individuals should not be considered “neurotic,” but rather, traumatized by a global event that instilled a sense of continued and persistent danger and uncertainty.

Psychological Implications: As with any trauma, global outbreaks of disease can damage our sense of safety. When this occurs, we can become avoidant, isolated, depressed, or phobic. This does significant damage to our mental health and causes us to withdraw from daily life in an effort to remain “safe.”

Violence anxiety. We are continuously exposed to violent stimuli, from police dashcam videos to news stories about mass shootings, wars, and other violent acts and incidents. The more we are exposed to these types of traumas vicariously, the more we begin to fear them happening to us. Fears of mass shootings, random acts of violence, or unsuspected attacks today hold a greater space in our collective minds than they did perhaps two or three decades ago.

Psychological Implications: When we are severely afraid, we often revert to the primitive behavioral response of “flight.” In modern terms, this typically takes the form of avoidance. If, for instance, we fear being a victim of a mass shooting, we might completely avoid public spaces, thus removing potentially joyful activities from our lives. Psychologically, this limits our lives and can cause us to feel constricted and robbed of experiences.

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How We Can Cope

While it may be helpful to recognize that the world, as long as it has been inhabited by humans, has always existed at some level of chaos and disorganization, the sheer weight of what is happening around us can feel unbearable. At these times, it is helpful to find meaning. Here are some ways that we can cope with societal anxiety in a meaningful way:

• Working in the “social interest." Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler wrote of learning to live in the “social interest,” wherein we see it as our “task to co-operate in remedying this poor state of affairs for the good of the community,” while not expecting change to be “brought about by some mythical evolutionary tendency.” In other words, we need to locate active and tangible ways that we can contribute to the larger human experience. What this action is, in particular, is irrelevant; rather, it is the mindset of seeing yourself as a part of the whole and feeling autonomy and power in the midst of uncertainty.
• Finding your “sphere of influence." By working in the social interest, we also find our “locus of control,” or the place where we are able to influence the world. My sphere of influence, for instance, lies in my work as a psychotherapist and social worker, where I am able to support those who are struggling. When you know where your sphere lies and how you can use it for the greater good, you feel a sense of action rather than of resignation or acceptance.
• Aligning your values. Knowing who you are and what you believe is a way to feel solidity in a constantly changing society. For instance, an adolescent client who recognizes her passion for climate action is able to navigate the complex feelings she experiences without slipping into a depressive or hopeless state when she considers the problem. Rather, she feels in touch with her beliefs, which allows her to connect with others of a similar mindset, consider what she can do within her sphere of influence, and accept her feelings about the situation without being suffocated by them.
• Refocusing your attention. The anxious mind fixates on unhelpful parts of our lives. In the case of societal anxiety, the mind attaches itself to negative, violent, and traumatizing stimuli. Part of coping in an age of anxiety is learning to refocus attention onto our own lives. We do not ignore what is happening in the world, but we also do not get stuck on what is happening. We reprioritize our lives in a healthier order and become more attuned to the moment at hand. This refocusing can help us to allow and accept the chaos of life while recognizing what helps us feel safe, secure, and loved.

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