Why preparing for an emergency can make us feel more anxious

My social media feed is usually full of therapists, golden retrievers, musical theatre, recipes and stand-up comedy. But recently I've noticed something else creeping in. People showing me which wind-up radios I might need, how much water I ought to be storing, and what I need to have ready in case of an emergency. So it was interesting to speak to Katie Rosseinsky for her article in The Independent about the rise of 'prepping', and why something that's supposed to help us feel prepared can sometimes leave us feeling more anxious instead.

On the surface, the advice to be prepared seems perfectly sensible. The government has encouraged us to think about having enough essential supplies to last three days in an emergency. And there's nothing particularly unreasonable about keeping a few extra tins in the cupboard. But I think it's easy to see why this sort of advice can also make us feel uneasy. Because we can't help joining the dots. We're not only thinking about whether we've got enough pasta or batteries. We're thinking about why we might need them. About shortages, uncertainty, and what a frightening future might look like. And when we're thinking about our own safety, or the safety of people we love, those fears can feel particularly powerful.

I think there's something else going on when the advice comes from the government, too. We might reasonably assume that if we're being encouraged to prepare, there must be something we need to prepare for. So even though the intention is to reassure us, the message itself can leave us feeling more vulnerable.

And then, of course, there's social media.

When we're anxious about something, it makes sense that we might look for reassurance. We might want to find out what other people are doing, or check that we've thought of everything. But before long we're comparing our own preparations with people who seem to know far more than we do, or who have the space and money to store a rather more impressive collection of emergency supplies.

And the more we look, the more we're shown. One video about emergency supplies leads to another, and suddenly our feeds are full of things we hadn't even considered worrying about. We can end up living in the worst-case scenario before it's actually happened.

There's a difference, I think, between making some calm, practical preparations and becoming so caught up in preparing that it starts to take over. We can't plan our way out of every possible situation. And if we're constantly researching, checking, buying or worrying about what we might have forgotten, the preparation itself can start to fuel the anxiety we were hoping it would relieve.

Perhaps the difficult part is accepting that being prepared won't necessarily make us feel completely safe. We can make a list, put a few things aside and know that we've done something practical. But we still have to live with the fact that life is uncertain, and that there are things we can't control.

I think it's worth noticing how all of this is affecting us. Are we feeling a little more prepared and able to get on with everyday life? Or are we finding that there's always one more thing to research, one more thing to buy, or one more scenario to worry about?

And perhaps it's also worth noticing what's happening to our social media feeds. Mine certainly wasn't short of things to worry about once the wind-up radios started appearing. Sometimes it helps to spend a little less time thinking about what might happen in the future, and a little more time connecting with what's actually happening around us today. Including, in my case, the golden retrievers and musical theatre.

Keen to explore more? In therapy we can take a deeper look at your feelings and how you cope when things around you are changing. Click here to contact me, or click here to book a 30-minute introductory call.