Ask a Therapist: How Can I Manage My Anxiety About the Uncertainty of the Future?

Oct 22

Raise your hand if you feel like every day there’s something new making you feel anxious AF 🙋🏻‍♀️

With an absolutely crucial election coming up, an ongoing massacre in the middle east, devastating climate effects, an increasingly unlivable economy, and continued racial injustice — among other things — 2024 is another stressful year in a long string of stressful years.

Some of the questions I’ve asked myself include: is this the new normal? What’s going to come next? Will we ever reach stability in our society? How will this all impact the generations to come?

And the constant access to information via social media is a double edged sword for sure. I’m over here constantly toeing the line between staying informed and staying sane (because both feels impossible).

If this resonates with you, you’re not alone. This is coming up frequently with my clients, friends, social media followers… we’re all feeling the effects of existential dread and uncertainty about the future.

Why do we get so anxious about uncertainty?

From an evolutionary perspective, our brains are wired to seek safety and avoid danger. Uncertainty represents the unknown—something our brain interprets as potentially dangerous.

Neuroscience research shows that the brain responds to uncertainty similarly to how it responds to physical threats. The amygdala (the brain’s fear center) is activated, triggering the activation of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. This is your body’s “fight-or-flight” response, designed to keep you alive in dangerous situations.

HOWEVER, your brain doesn’t actually differentiate between physical threats and mental ones. So, whether you’re facing an actual tiger about to eat you for dinner or an uncertain job market, your brain reacts the same way. (This isn’t meant to minimize the real consequences that can come from some of these “mental” dangers. Rather, we’re illustrating that our body’s stress response can take us down a desperate, reactive spiral for survival despite the threat not being immediately urgent.)

On top of that, uncertainty can lead to a sense of loss of control — another major anxiety trigger. It’s not just about being uncomfortable with change (which is, of course, a normal response as well) — it’s about the inability to predict, control, or plan for what’s to come, which can leave you feeling vulnerable, helpless, or scared. With so many societal and global issues at play, it can also feel incredibly overwhelming and bring about feelings of powerlessness.

This type of anxiety doesn’t always look like a full-blown panic attack. It can be sneaky and take various forms, such as:

Overthinking and ruminating on “what if” scenarios
Difficulty making decisions (because you don’t know what the future holds)
Avoiding risks or opportunities due to fear of the unknown
Hopelessness about the future, which can impact your goals, dreams, or future plans
Physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tension, and digestive issues
Feeling apathetic or like nothing you do matters (or that choices are meaningless because of the state of the world)

So, how do we manage this anxiety about the future when so much seems out of our hands?

1. Use mindfulness to help you stay present.

When we’re anxious about the future, our minds are often racing toward things that haven’t happened yet — and may never happen. This “time traveling” pulls us away from the present, leaving us more stressed, scattered, and overwhelmed. Practicing mindfulness can bring us back to the here and now, grounding us when our thoughts start spiraling.

Try this: Take a few minutes each day to practice mindful breathing (more on that here). Focus on the sensations of your breath — how it feels going in and out of your body. When your mind drifts to the future (because it will), gently bring it back to your breath. This simple exercise can interrupt the anxious thought loop and help you stay present. While this doesn’t “solve” the uncertainty, it can be a more productive outlet than continuously ruminating on something that feels scary or out of your control.

2. Challenge your anxious thoughts.

Learning to challenge anxious thoughts is an excellent tool for navigating uncertainty. Anxiety often convinces us that the worst-case scenario is inevitable, even though it rarely is. Basically, our brains “fill in the gap” when they don’t have all the information.

When we are faced with a situation, we have an automatic thought in response, which is often based in distorted, inaccurate, or irrational thinking. This thought exacerbates the anxiety and fear, often leading to consequences such as hopelessness, avoidance, or giving up.

Instead of letting that cycle play out, ask yourself:

What evidence (not opinions) do I have that supports this fear?
What evidence (not opinions) do I have against this fear being true?
What’s the most likely outcome, rather than the worst-case scenario?
Where do I have control in this situation, however big or small?

When we take the time to challenge our thoughts, we often find that they’re based on emotion, not reality. From there, we can reframe them into something more realistic, balanced, and helpful. For a more in-depth guide on how to do this, check out this blog post!

3. Be careful about rigid expectations.

A big source of anxiety about the future comes from having a very particular picture of what your future “should” look like. As humans, we crave a sense of belonging and a clear identity, both of which can be threatened by future unknowns. For example, the rampant threat of gun violence might make you think twice about your kids’ schooling (or even having kids!), which can have a huge domino effect on other parts of your life. While it’s absolutely okay to have goals or a vision for your future, uncertainty can lead to having to consider potential changes to that vision. And even if that change makes room for something else to come along, it's important to give yourself space to grieve the expectations that are difficult to let go of.

4. Limit your news and/or social media consumption.

There's a difference between staying informed and falling prey to infinite doom scrolling. Be sure to set boundaries around your media consumption, especially if you struggle with feeling hopeless about the future. Constant negative news is not good for the psyche. 😬

Here are some things to try:

Turn off notifications to avoid constantly checking social media
Move news or social media apps off your main home screen
Unfollow accounts that don't make you feel good
Set time limits for using news or social media apps (or your phone in general)
Avoid using social media in the first 15-30 minutes after waking up or 30-60 minutes before bed

5. Focus on what you can control.

One of the best ways to reduce anxiety is to focus on what you can control, rather than dwelling on what’s out of your hands. You can’t control the future or predict the outcomes of every situation, but you can control how you respond to the present moment.

Make a list: Write down what aspects of your life or a particular stressor are within your control, and which are not. This can help shift your attention from the uncontrollable to what you can influence, like your thoughts, actions, and self-care habits.

For example, if you’re anxious about the upcoming election, focus on increasing awareness about issues you’re passionate about, donate or volunteer for a cause that matters to you, or write your representatives. We can’t control every situation that happens, but we can control something in every situation.

The reality is, none of us can predict the future. Even though there are some scary things happening in the world, that doesn’t mean we don’t have any control over our lives or that everything is doomed. Uncertainty is a part of life, but it doesn’t have to control your life. The goal here isn’t to magically be able to have control over the outcome, but to build the skills needed to cope with or adjust to whatever that outcome is.