In this 2021 YouTube talk, Dr. Jameca Cooper explains why anxiety levels have risen sharply during the COVID‑19 pandemic. She identifies six primary drivers: (1) excessive news consumption that repeatedly exposes viewers to distressing events; (2) living alone, which amplifies loneliness, depression, and social withdrawal; (3) the transition back to public life—restaurants, streets, and gatherings—triggering fear about masks, distancing, and safety; (4) uncertainty surrounding COVID‑19 vaccines, including safety, side‑effects, and efficacy; (5) pandemic‑related restrictions that limit personal freedom and disrupt normal activities; and (6) mask‑related breathing discomfort, especially for people with respiratory conditions. Dr. Cooper frames each factor as a contributor to heightened stress and offers a brief invitation to subscribe for further anxiety‑management resources.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper, and today we're going to talk about pandemic anxiety. Lots of us have experienced higher levels of anxiety in the past 12 to 14 months because being impacted by COVID-19 has made people feel really uncertain. And, and difficult times cause for lots of difficult feelings like depression and anxiety. I've seen in my practice a higher level of anxiety with my patients because, as we've seen in the past year, things change, the rules change, the vaccines come, the vaccines, uh, get increased. Prior to that, social distance made it difficult for many of us to work and to interact with our loved ones. So now here we are in 2021, and we're looking at lots of individuals with higher levels of different mental illnesses. So why are people more anxious during the pandemic? One of the big things I see with my patients is that they watch a lot of news. Many of my patients tell me they watch news at least 3 times in the morning depending on how early they get up, but they could watch the 6 AM news, then the 7 AM news. If you watch Good Morning America, it lasts for about 2 hours, maybe 3 hours now. So if you watch that, that's a total of 5 different times simply before noon. And then if you watch the noon news, and then the 5 PM news, 6 PM news, and the nightly news, now we're at about, what, 8 different times of a day for news. So if you are constantly engaging in new shows, especially different news shows, then you tend to have a higher level of anxiety. The reason is because most of the new shows focus on what? Bad things that happen in the world, whether it's war, whether it's different countries and their laws and their rules, uh, violent crimes that occur, COVID-19. Many of those issues only make you feel more anxious. It typically doesn't make you feel less anxious. So watching the news can be a big factor. One of the other things that cause a greater amount of anxiety is living alone. Sometimes individuals who live alone don't have the same opportunities to interact with people on the outside, and for that reason, they tend to feel more lonely, depressed, isolated. Sometimes this also impacts their sleep, but in general, when you live alone and you're not seeing people, it tends to make you shrink a bit into your shell. Sometimes people become more reclusive at times like these. I've also seen the opposite. So now that restaurants and cities and states are beginning to open back up, now we have opportunities to go outside, to go restaurants and to go different places. And for some people, that makes them feel more anxious because we spent the past year being at home or being alone. So now having the opportunity to be around people makes us feel more anxious because we have to think about things like, do we have our mask on? Do they have their mask on? What are the rules in this place? Am I standing too close or too far from everyone? Am I safe? All of those things matter, and it really contributes to our anxiety. Some of the other reasons that contribute to our higher levels of anxiety are the vaccines. Are you going to get the vaccine? If you're going to get the vaccine, which one are you going to get? Is it safe? What are the long-term effects of the vaccine? Have your loved ones gotten the vaccine? Is it going to hurt? What are the side effects? Are you going to be safe and effective from not obtaining COVID-19? So many questions about the vaccine. So that in and of itself can contribute to your levels of stress and anxiety. Some of the other things that I see that contribute to our levels of anxiety during the pandemic are the restrictions. I can say for myself, I'm not a person that does well with restrictions and rules and policies that keep me from doing certain things, and for many people that is also an issue. So just knowing that we can't freely move around in our cities and our states as we would have prior to COVID can be quite anxiety-provoking for some people. Having to stay at home, not being able to go to amusement parks, concerts— those things really matter to people. Those are integral parts of our daily lives, and not being able to do those can really make us feel more anxious. Another element that can impact an individual's level of anxiety is the whole restriction about wearing masks. Some of us are even wearing 2 to 3 masks, but what I see with my patients, especially those that are older adults, is that it is anxiety-producing for the simple reason that it restricts your breathing. So for those people who have respiratory issues like COPD or asthma, it can really impact their breathing out, so how they exhale, and if they feel as though they have enough room. For some individuals with respiratory issues, they can already feel a bit suffocated, so having to wear something over your nose and mouth can really make them feel not just restricted, but almost as if, um, they're breathing shallow and that they're running out of breath. So for some of us, wearing the mask, although it makes us all feel safe and protected from COVID-19, it can make us feel more anxious just based on the design of the mask. Um, so again, that's another element that contributes to higher levels of anxiety during the pandemic. If you're interested in seeing more information on anxiety and tips on how to handle anxiety, subscribe here.
