Consider This from NPR - Anxiety Is Up. Here Are Some Tips On How To Manage It.

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

The number of Americans experiencing anxiety has been rising, especially since the start of the pandemic. There also aren't enough providers to meet the need, making it tough to access proper treatment for millions of Americans. NPR's Juana Summers talks to Catherine Ettman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, about how the pandemic caused anxiety to spike.And NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee shares some strategies that could help manage anxiety. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. Racing thoughts, struggling to sit still, queasy stomach, a sense of dread. These are some of the sensations that typically accompany anxiety. And they are feelings that Nathan Jurado is all too familiar with. Anxiety, I think, is best described as living in constant fear. At least that's what it's been in my experience. It just feels like there's no rest from being afraid.

Jurado is 36 years old, but he says that his anxiety stems from his childhood, growing up in an abusive household. At the time, I didn't register it as abuse, and I didn't register my fears and anxiety. It was just, I think, a normal, mundane sort of existence. But once I left my home, the word anxiety started, it began to be something that I would constantly think about. Jurado says that even though he's lived on his own for many years, the anxiety has lingered. And once the pandemic started, it became more severe. During the pandemic, I've never experienced so much death in my life. And this is, I think, for somebody who was always comfortable

with the whole idea of death itself. But during the pandemic, I think, I don't even know how to describe it. Jurado is not the only one. The pandemic threw a lot of people's lives into a tailspin. Psychologist Bumi Olatunji studies anxiety at Vanderbilt University. I think that COVID really created a hotbed or a context of uncertainty. When are restrictions going to be lifted? Am I going to get vaccinated? When are schools going to be lifted? Am I going to get vaccinated? When are schools going to open? Right. So there are a lot of elements about the pandemic that was really tapping into this sort of phenomenon of uncertainty. Recent data shows that not only did more Americans experience

symptoms of anxiety disorder during the height of the pandemic, but that for many, those feelings of anxiety have lingered even as life has started to return to normal. And now, a panel of health experts is recommending that doctors screen all patients under the age of 65 for anxiety, so that those who have symptoms can be connected with treatment. For individuals who suspect that they may be struggling with an anxiety disorder, I think it's important to see a clinician to get diagnosed, assessed and diagnosed, but to also know that we have

very good evidence-based psychological treatment. Consider this. We know that more Americans have been feeling anxious lately. And for millions of people, access to mental health care is not easy. We'll learn more about some of the factors that have fueled this trend in recent years and share tips on how to best manage anxiety in our day-to-day lives.

From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Thursday, December 22nd. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time, mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. With all of the uncertainty during the pandemic, it's no surprise that more Americans are feeling anxious. In order to get a sense of just how big an impact the pandemic had, I spoke with Katherine Etman. She's a postdoctoral fellow at Johns

Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. Edmund told me that even before the pandemic hit, anxiety in the U.S. was trending upward. In particular, this was true of younger people, people ages 18 to 25, unmarried people, and people without a college degree. And then during the pandemic, what we found was that all groups were reporting elevated symptoms of anxiety. I wonder, when you look at this, were there certain groups that saw a larger raise in anxiety levels during these past three years than others? Yes. What we found is that during the pandemic, pre-existing gaps existed, they remained, and some of those gaps got larger. And we are seeing larger gaps across things like income and educational attainment. So for those who have fewer resources, we found that they were reporting disproportionately more anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. And that was in part related to the stressors that they

experienced. So in our research, in the CLIMB study, which is supported by the Boston University School of Public Health and the DeBeaumont Foundation, we found that experiencing more stressors due to the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with more anxiety. So that means people who reported having death of loved ones, job loss, or having a family member lose a job, all of these stressors added up together. And unfortunately, people who had fewer assets and fewer resources going into the pandemic were more likely to experience these stressors that then could lead to anxiety. You've talked a bit about how big of a factor

socioeconomic status plays here. And it made me wonder, were there any city or state-level policies that you know of that work to help to lower anxiety, particularly in the populations we've been discussing who have fewer resources available to them? Yes, so there were studies that looked at state policies, and one study in particular looked at persons who had income shock, and among those people, for states that had protective policies in place, such as limiting utility freezes or having more generous unemployment policies, those states had less depression and less anxiety than states that had less generous policies. And we should just point out that access to mental health care is really difficult,

even under the best of circumstances. But before I let you go, I want to end by asking you, is there anything about right now that gives you hope that access is improving or that it could in the future? seen the national conversation on mental health shift over the last few years. I think there is a greater understanding of the importance of mental health. And with it, there are many people who are working towards supporting those in need. That was Katherine Etman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. There are many reasons why people may be having trouble getting help from mental health care providers. A big one is that there's a shortage of providers. Many are leaving the profession because of burnout, and that can make it tough to find treatment that is both affordable and attainable. Eleanor Regenthal is a full-time student from

Mocksville, North Carolina, which is in a rural part of the state. There's definitely no chance of finding therapists out here, but when I was closer to the city, there were a plethora of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists nearby. And despite having so many, still none of them were accepting new patients. So if you're faced with that situation, what can you do? NPR's Ritu Chatterjee shares some strategies that could help. Think back to the times you felt extremely anxious. Maybe your heart was racing, you were breathing fast, completely unable to focus on whatever you were doing

before your anxious thoughts spiraled into a canyon of dread and doom. Psychiatrist Dr. Jessie Gold has some tips to help calm you in those intense moments. So what we often tell people in those situations is to use tools called grounding, meaning you're really focused on where's my body in space, where are my feet, where are my hands. Anything that can pull your attention away from your racing anxious thoughts and toward your body and your five senses. Gold, who's at Washington University in St. Louis, says there are other tricks as well. Some people also like to just look around their room and name like five things they can see, four things they can hear, three things they could touch, like kind of down the senses,

and that can be helpful. I'm a big like stress ball person too so anything that you can kind of grab and ground yourself in what you're doing. She says another way to calm down in the moment is to change your body temperature quickly by doing something physical like running up and down the stairs or holding an ice pack to your neck and face and if you're brave enough to do this, try taking a cold shower. Which I've personally done, and it's pretty miserable, but it can help you kind of get out of really strong feelings pretty quickly. That kind of brief discomfort to the body helps it relax, the way deep breathing does.

Psychologist Alyssa Epple is at the University of California, San Francisco, and the author of the new book, The Stress Prescription. It turns out that our body loves short shots of stress and is not just more relaxed, but more rejuvenated from a cellular level after stress. It's why we feel relaxed after a high-intensity workout. And Apple says doing these things on a regular basis also improves mood and makes us more resilient to stress in the long run. So, for example, hot saunas can help with anxiety and depression. Cold showers or ice immersion, they also can help with coping with anxiety and stress. And when it comes to other long-term strategies, here's one thing you need to know about anxiety. Psychologist Crystal Lewis is with the National Institute of Mental Health. What I always say is uncertainty is a

breeding ground for anxiety. And so these past few years, we've been experiencing a lot of that. Lewis says one way to counter the impact of all the external uncertainties is to focus on aspects of life that you can control. It might be something in your household, parenting with your children. Anything that you can do to build up your routine and create a schedule can be helpful and just give you the sense of efficacy that there are certain things that you're able to control during these tough times. Even doing little jobs around the house can help. Psychologist Lynn Bufka is with the American Psychological Association. Decluttering, getting the dishes done, or things that help our environment feel more orderly can sometimes help our mental state feel less overwhelmed and distressed. Because first of all, that could happen because we're demonstrating I do have some agency. I can take care of some things.

Bufka says studies show that seeking out nature is also very helpful, and you don't have to drive to a park and hike several miles to do that. You could have a house plant. You could take care of a house plant. Sometimes taking care of something and seeing it grow reminds us that change can happen and that good things can happen. And when the world around us feels shaky and uncertain, Bufka says, it's just as important to acknowledge that times are tough and there are things that are beyond our control. Learning to acknowledge and let go of those worries is also key to calming an anxious mind.

That was NPR's Ritu Chatterjee. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges. Groundbreaking investments in neuroscience, climate change, Alzheimer's research, and cybersecurity mean IU sets new standards to move the world forward, unlocking cures and solutions that lead to a better future for all. More at iu.edu forward.