Given the recent events of the “Tik Tok challenge” that threatened school shootings and the surge of the Omicron variant, I thought this would be a good time to talk about dealing with uncertainty.

If you are following my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/howtobeatanxietyblog) and/or Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/howtobeatanxietyblog/), you will see a statement I made regarding uncertainty. If you missed it, go check it out.

I saw a statement from Dr. Koplewicz, Director of the Child Mind Institute, that stated, “Anxiety is more contagious than any coronavirus variant.” When I read that, I had to stop and think about what exactly that meant. While I am not a scientist studying the rates of transmission of COVID-19, I can confidently say that anxiety is contagious. Very contagious.

Driving my kids to school on Friday, the day of the “Tik Tok challenge,” I was anxious. I thought, “Did I make the right decision?” I made sure my kids were not aware of how I was feeling. If they had noticed, this would have led to questions about why I was anxious. This was not a conversation I wanted to have with my children.

I believe Dr. Koplewicz’s quote refers to the needs for us, as parents and caregivers, to learn to manage our own anxiety. If we do not, our kids can and will absorb it. This event involved us having to tolerate the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen at school that day. Although we were being told these were not credible threats, our anxiety monster can easily pop in and say, “But what if they are?”

“What if” trails

This is a common trap that people dealing with anxiety fall into. Anxiety monster has you going down the “What if” trails, leaving you feeling anxious. It is through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that you can learn how to respond to this type of questioning. The information given on this blog is all based in CBT principals.

This also applies to the surge of the Omicron variant, especially right before the holidays. There is still so much we do not know about the variant, causing us to tolerate uncertainty. Again, it is easy to go down the “What if” trails. What if the vaccine does not protect against this? What if this leads to everything shutting down again? What if we can’t get together with family for the holidays? This list can go on and on.

Again, it is so important that we manage this anxiety so that others do not absorb it. This message is not just for parents and caregivers. It applies to all of us.

The first strategy to deal with uncertainty is on both of my social media pages. I will provide more strategies in the next few days. Then we can get back to our anxiety education.

Stay tuned!

Xoxo,

Andrea