5 hours ago
13
Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, my therapy rooms have been flooded with clients talking about the possibility of a world war and the widespread perception that we stand at a perilous tipping point in history. People are dealing with this differently, with some sanguinely shrugging and accepting they can’t change matters so there’s little point worrying, while others fret and compulsively check the news. Many describe a sense of strong doom.
I too have experienced a similar awareness that the global order has changed irrevocably, with the same uncertainty as my clients are describing.
Plans seem perilous, and decisions which were simple a few months ago (eg when and where to go for holidays; to upgrade my couch or not) are freighted with weight and several impossible questions.
Will borders be open and airspaces safe?
Will tickets be affordable?
Is spending money on a holiday or miscellaneous goods wise in the face of a looming global economic contraction?
For most of us, the kind of angst we have been experiencing over the past few years is far deeper than a simple situational anxiety. Indeed, it cannot even rightfully be described as a clinical anxiety disorder, because it is an accurate and realistic response to a world which has changed beyond recognition, where numerous changes are coalescing to create a polycrisis.
The best descriptor for what we are experiencing is perhaps a form of globalised trauma, where large-scale events such as war and genocide have resounding effects on entire societies. Those directly affected by violence are most harmed, but people witnessing these harms can also have strong negative responses, such as depression and dread. Underpinning this is a shift in our understanding of the future, with a collapse of our belief that the future will be predictable, safe and in our control.
Our understanding of the world hinges on predictability and the notion that we will remain safe, and the current situation has brought many of us face to face with the deepest terror humans experience – the fear of death.
Existential psychologists consider that much of our anxiety – whether health anxiety, generalised anxieties, phobias or trauma responses – arise from our innate fear of nonexistence through death.
Terror management theory suggests we manage this fear in a range of ways, such as by investing in concepts of immortality and continuance, whether via religion or through our legacies, growing our self-esteem by making meaning and amplifying our perceptions of our own importance. We employ psychological defences to manage our knowledge of looming death, and can usually either deny this reality or rationalise it away (“I’m young and healthy”).
Losing control of events and witnessing or experiencing harm like war brings our knowledge of looming mortality front and centre, eradicating all our defences.
Much of our current anxiety stems from this activated fear, overlain by other understandable fears about the global environment and what climatic, geopolitical and economic change might mean for us – rising interest rates and fuel costs, food insecurity and a drastically changed lifestyle. The human brain struggles to grapple with the unpredictable and those prone to feeling anxious are likely to see this change as an existential threat and respond with worry.
Managing this form of existential anxiety is not a simple task, and there are no cognitive reframes or breath techniques that can assist with this.
Normalising the emotions we are feeling helps, including naming it as existential anxiety instead of ignoring the elephant in the room and fretting over smaller details as we might be tempted to do (“should I book tickets now or later?”).
Once we have named it, taking a few deep breaths and sitting with the reality of a changing world and our place in it is important. This includes the acceptance of eventual mortality (a difficult task, I know!), acceptance that any life will hold both physical and emotional pain, and grappling with our changing relationship with freedom and certainty.
Having the courage to put aside our defences is important so we can simply name and face our fears.
We might be tempted to rush to return to “life as normal” to soothe the anxiety we feel, though the reality is the world has changed irrevocably from the safe and certain world with international order those in the west have grown to expect.
Instead, a few tasks might help: orienting ourselves with psychological flexibility towards the reality that things may change at any moment, keeping our thinking as realistic as possible (although the geopolitical situation is perilous, nuclear war may not be imminent), starting to prepare ourselves to rethink our actions and goals, remaining committed to values-based living despite changing circumstances, and starting to grow our local communities and connections so we can self-sustain.
