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In my most recent Psychology Today blog post[i] I wrote about the harmful effects of people becoming used to bad things and worsening life situations. This post is about what happens when people aren’t numb to those bad things breaking around them.
Increasing External Chaos Is Bad for Your Health
When significant changes occur, many people experience anxiety, which may be paired with depression. Those mental health problems can be heightened when changes are outside of the person’s sphere of control, so they are perceived as assaults on their autonomy.
Such chaos-induced anxiety is increasing. A recent article in The Guardian described how therapists are seeing more patients for anxiety and depression related to external chaos beyond the individual’s control.[ii] Those insights are consistent with the conversations I’ve had with mental health clinicians and other people inside and outside the health care world.
Anxiety Causes Physical Harm
Increased anxiety is not just a mental health concern. It causes physical, personal, professional, and relationship problems. Increased long-term anxiety has been shown to not only lead to depression, but also elevated cortisol levels, higher blood pressure, and depressed immune function.[iii]
Responding to Chaos and Uncertainty
The key to responding to expanding external chaos and stress is to engage in ways that provide people the opportunity to regain some sense of autonomy. The alternative is for people to disengage from the chaos as much as they can, so that they essentially let themselves become numb to all the changes and their loss of autonomy. While that alternative may reduce anxiety and depression in the short term, it can lead to longer-term ill health effects when all the external changes catch up with them—either directly or indirectly.
For example, ignoring world-changing events by turning off the news can be an effective tactic. However, when world-changing events directly affect a person’s life (such as through a job layoff because of artificial intelligence, inability to pay one’s bills because of higher energy costs, or discrimination against a family member because of their gender identity), the tactic of “turning a blind eye” fails.
As the Guardian article notes—and I’ve written about in my book and elsewhere—community engagement is one effective way for people to feel more grounded and in control of their own lives in ways that insulate (or immunize) them against the ill effects of external chaos and turmoil. Activities that can heighten a person’s sense of community engagement include volunteering, donating, and protesting—all of which can connect them to local informal support systems and networks.
Finding Successful Individual Responses
Every individual needs to find the best ways for them to respond based upon what they are comfortable with and their own skills and experiences. For some people, that means engaging through writing. For others, it is in the creative/arts space. And other people may find effective engagement through organizing local activities or helping others find safe spaces and support networks.
The common theme for constructive responses is that they provide people with stronger personal connections within their communities. Those connections can be local, or distant to the extent that virtual meetings and conversations provide significant productive support for retaining or regaining a sense of autonomy.
Political Positions Can Promote Anxiety
As The Guardian article notes, a significant source of increased external chaos is government actions, policies, and rhetoric. That is, many people’s anxiety has expanded dramatically when they view government-driven changes as steps to take away their autonomy. This perception is reflected in the president’s approval rating in polls[iv] since most people support leaders who reduce stress in their lives rather than increasing their uncertainty and anxiety.
Examples of Things That are Increasing Uncertainty and Anxiety
- Vaccine policy, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deciding to not review a new flu vaccine, and then within 24 hours changing that decision. What does that portend for access to future vaccines?
- The leader of Venezuela being captured for reasons that are stated as either pertaining to drug smuggling or access to oil.
- Immigration actions to detain and deport undocumented individuals but that have reportedly also resulted in the arrest, deportation, and killing of U.S. citizens.
- Will interest and mortgage rates go up, or will they go down?
- Was the attack on Iran a preemptive measure to prevent attacks in the United States or on ally countries in the Middle East? And is there now an increased risk of domestic attacks?
- Will inflation spike with oil prices because of what’s going on in the Middle East?
The common theme here is dramatically increased uncertainty in people’s lives—with an extra dose of anxiety about what comes next because the changes have happened rapidly and often unexpectedly.
People’s Responses to the Uncertainty and Their Anxiety
One visible response to anxiety and perceived loss of autonomy from the greater external chaos and heightened uncertainty was the estimated 7 million people in the United States who came out for the No Kings events in October 2025. How much anxiety has grown since then will be seen on March 28th, when there will be more No Kings events across the United States. (As of March 19th, there were more than 3,000 such events registered,[v] and the expectation is that there will be 9-10 million people at the March 28th events.) Considering that in 2024 there were about 267 million people over the age of 18 in the United States,[vi] that means there are expected to be 3.4-3.8 percent of the adults in the United States participating in those events across the country. That percentage is important because there is some evidence that when at least 3.5 percent of a population participates in nonviolent protests, it represents a tipping point for significant societal or cultural changes.[vii]
Although confronting sources of anxiety can be difficult and challenging, it can give a person the feeling that they have not lost control of their destiny and help them retain a stronger sense of autonomy. Preventing people from feeling helpless can lead to psychological and physical benefits if it reduces anxiety. It is like the old Nike marketing slogan, “Just Do It.” And of course, exercise itself can be helpful for anxiety and depression.[viii]
Summary and Conclusions
Many people experience anxiety when significant changes occur rapidly. This may be seen as an assault on their autonomy. The very rapid rolling out of policies and actions by governments is contributing significantly to that rapid-change-induced anxiety and fear of loss of autonomy.
Increased long-term anxiety is bad for a person’s health. It can lead to other mental health problems, such as depression, as well as physical problems from elevated cortisol levels, including higher blood pressure and immune system dysfunction.
Community engagement and resistance through nonviolent civil action can help a person retain their feeling of control over their lives and sense of autonomy. It may also help them manage their anxiety about the changing world by increasing their connections within their community—which may serve as informal support systems— as well as providing them with specific tasks to focus on and act upon.
