What to do when your COVID anxiety outlasts the pandemic

By Olga Rosales Salinas

At the start of the pandemic, friends of mine who had never experienced debilitating anxiety were suddenly doomscrolling, spending most of their workdays speed-texting each other COVID-related news. They were riding the “what-if roller coaster.” These were the friends I typically turned to when my generalized anxiety peaks. Because of COVID, I found myself becoming a tour guide in the familiar terrain of what it means to manage anxiety. I began doling out articles on coping with anxiety to these newly anxious friends and family and sharing tools I’d gained over years of therapy. I began to feel like my past investment in my mental health could help others.

How did you experience anxiety at the beginning of COVID? Did you panic-buy toilet paper? Did that actually make you feel better? How about hoarding yeast starters? Did you feel like you were having a heart attack while scrolling through your newsfeed during the first few weeks of lockdown? And, how about now? Are you vaxxed and mingling? Or, are you still wrestling with the blanket of anxiety that last year introduced? Today’s article is for those experiencing a generalized anxiety that has outlasted the rational threat of COVID.

Read the full column here.