Any advice for end of the world anxiety?

[Notnowbarnaby]

I’ve posted about this before but my sister suffers from anxiety. It manifests in different ways and at the moment the horrors of the world are triggering it massively, which I understand because we live in scary, awful times.

we are due to go on holiday on Saturday, to Greece, and she’s very very stressed about it. I feel so sad for her as she’s been really looking forward to it and she really needs a break, but she’s now very anxious about terror attacks while we are away (we are going to an all inclusive type place and won’t venture out of it much if at all). She has young children which also seems to be the driving force for her anxiety, again I can see how that works once you’re in an anxious mindset - having children and keeping them safe is anxiety inducing anyway!

does anyone have any advice on how I can reassure her? It’s tricky as after the developments with Iran/israel it’s not an irrational belief that we may see an increase in terror attacks in the EU, but this is also likely on home soil unfortunately.

i just don’t want her to miss out over these fears. She’s packing about attacks on planes, attacks on resorts, basically anywhere, and it’s really hard once it has her in its grip.

shes booked back in to see her therapist but that’s not til Thursday. I’m going to spend some time with her tomorrow to hopefully distract her a bit but I’m always worried about making these situations worse for her when I’m trying to help.

Actively avoid the news, take up gardening and 'in the moment' activities.

Thank you. I’m hoping it stays dry tomorrow so I can get her out on a walk, go for coffee, get her away from tiktok and social media for a bit

This is a quote from a novel I have just read which really struck a chord with me and made me feel better about the awful events happening around the world.

"There's always something. As a species we have a desire to believe that we're living at the climax of the story. It's a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we're uniquely important, that we're the ones living at the end of history. That now, after all the millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst it's ever been, that we have finally reached the end of the world"

IMO the media feeds this view. And it's just that - a view.

while ive not suffered anxiety of the end of the world, mine being more 'the sky is falling' and 'everything that can go wrong will' kind of anxiety that sort of ties into it, i have to back up the 'avoid the news' advice alongside distraction.

Mine is mostly under control, but when i'm struggling, the news is a HUGE trigger point for setting me off, i've learned to avoid reading certain articles that speak of war/disaster for my own sanity. I prefer to listen to headlines like Radio One will give in their bulletins which is short, quick, minimally factual without sensationalising or speculation.

The current situation with Russia and whats going on in Israel do 'spike' my anxiety a little, so i'm paying minimal attention.. i'm not clueless, and i can go away and find sensible, impartial facts if i want to look into it more, but right now my anxiety is bit heightened, so i'm avoiding watching it on tv or reading newspaper articles. in a few days when it settles down, i might do some more research.

It's a matter of learning what sets you off, and how to distract/redirect when it gets set off.

Thank you, unfortunately it’s raining this morning so my plan for a walk is scuppered but I’m going to take her for a drive and a coffee.

Great advice on here.
Definitely advise her to stop watching the news(I need to do this). I stopped for a good while 2016 onwards but I have allowed it to creep back in as I felt out of the loop and clueless. But tbh I’d rather be clueless at the moment. It’s so horrific what is going on in the world but it is completely out of our control, and worrying about it achieves nothing other than make me ill.

Yes I think she’s watching things like tiktok and the news constantly and now it’s kind of transferred to the holiday because it’s something out of routine and she’s worrying specifically about terror attacks.
Thanks so much for the insight, I don’t want to say something that actually makes it worse. Instead I’m going to try to keep her busy and not pressure her into going on holiday still but hope she decides she wants to go.

The sad thing is nowhere is safe really these days, which is why o worry less about things like this than I used to but I didn’t want to say that because I didn’t think it would be helpful in her current state of mind.

Maybe try and flip the danger on its head - a vast majority of the planet is a very safe place to live.

To put it into context, people have left southern Lebanon. Southern Lebanon is a dangerous place to be. Gaza is a dangerous place to be. Isreal and Iran are dangerous places to be.

Greece, comparatively, is a safe haven. The biggest threat there is fire and the high season for fire is over.

If you are in the UK you are living in one of the safest places on Earth. We are an Island with no direct land borders with any other countries. This is why people wish to come here. We are paradise compared to much of the planet.

This reminds me of a song I came across the other day! I won't post a link as I know people don't like them, but it's called Important by Ian Mconnell. Fab tune and really made me think.

Nowhere is safe, but you have to try and rationalise (something CBT helps teach you to do).

The most scared i ever was abroad was when 9/11 happened, i was actually on holiday at the time (in greece funnily enough) and it happened 3 days before we were due to fly home. The panic and stress that flight home bought about was a nightmare, but my parents managed to talk me down to a reasonable level of calmness by pointing out it was probably the safest time to fly in the history of flying, because right then, everyone was watching, security was extremely tight.

if your person can be helped that way, a little research might help into how safe greece itself is. but be careful because sometimes that can also go the other way and cement belief, it depends on them!

@foxxo yes I looked at the tourism info page for Greece on the government website and it actually said there’s a high chance of terrorist attacks in the uk and EU against British nationals so won’t be showing her that!

thanks for all the advice everyone. Really helpful. I feel for her so much. I have struggled with health anxiety in the past which is its own beast but this is unfortunately more rooted in things that are actually happening

Tell her to ask her doctor for propranolol
You take it when u need it ,no more than 3 a day
Calms me down enough to function
On a bad day,I take 3
Some days I take none or one
I just asked my doctor for it ,I said a friend was using it and had ,had great results with it ,so could I try for my anxiety please.
And it's Ben a lifesaver ever since