Excessive worry about COVID-19 is becoming a mental health pandemic unto itself. Fears and questions about the future can keep us up at night, distract us during the day, and make it hard to find the motivation and energy to take care of ourselves and our loved ones.
But anxiety can also be useful, explains University of California–Berkeley professor Sonia Bishop. Negative emotions like fear are a natural response to what’s going on in our environment. The key is to channel those emotions to help us act appropriately, rather than getting stuck in cycles of rumination.
