Anxiety as the Pandemic Drags On and On

We’re now more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. As the years have gone on, the anxiety that people feel has often taken on new forms. When the pandemic hit, many felt thrown abruptly into an alien experience: germs, sickness, unknown dangers, the loss of regular contact with friends and loved ones, financial worries. This was an exceptionally stressful time, but for many people it felt time-limited, like the shock of an injury or accident that will heal, an acute trauma that will end—and on the other side there will be a return to how things were before. Soon, the world will make sense again. But now it has been years, and while an end may be in sight, it may be a more complicated end in which elements of the pandemic drag on.

We’ve been living in these anxious times for so long that pandemic anxiety symptoms can start to feel like “normal life.” Unusual levels of anxiety can come to live in your thoughts, emotions, body, and nervous system. What once felt like panic about a specific event that will soon pass can start to feel like a lasting part of you. But it’s important to remember that even in a pandemic world, or especially in a pandemic world, painful anxiety isn’t something that you need to simply accept as the new normal, push through, and bear alone. There are ways of finding relief.

The shift in anxiety during the pandemic can take many forms. In my practice I’ve noticed, for instance, that specific worries about catching COVID-19 may give way to a more general feeling of unease. You may move through the world with your defenses activated, even if you aren’t sure always what you’re defending against. Living with chronic anxiety can lead to bone-weariness and exhaustion. You may live in a state of continual irritability and overreact to minor frustrations or surprises. You may find that anxiety is settling into your body, with your muscles feeling tense or exhausted. You may feel physically like you have aged well beyond your years. Your anxiety may have also merged with feelings of sadness and grief around pandemic losses, so that it’s difficult to know where anxiety ends and depression begins. These are just a few ways in which your anxiety may be changing. But this doesn’t have to be the new normal. There is hope.

If you are struggling with anxiety during the pandemic, anxiety treatment can help. I work with my patients in a safe and caring environment to understand how anxiety is impacting their lives, and to navigate pathways of healing and support. Even while the pandemic drags on, therapy can help to interrupt the process through which anxiety becomes the new you. Together we can help you draw on inner and outer resources to more effectively handle and move through your anxiety, and to find ways of nourishing and replenishing you during these difficult times.

If you find yourself struggling with anxiety as the pandemic drags on, I invite you to contact me at (510) 500-9722, so we can talk about how anxiety treatment can help.

Steven Barrie-Anthony, Ph.D., Psy.D., works with patients in Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, the East Bay, and the greater San Francisco Bay Area, as well as across California via telehealth, who are struggling with concerns such as anxiety, depression, and grief. He also specializes in working with people who want to work on deepening their emotional lives and relationships

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