Sharing – Coronavirus: Why you’re obsessed with reading everything about it

I know this is true for many of us, in the face of uncertainty we are looking for information to make sense of it all, to soothe ourselves. But…

“This ‘safety behaviour’ is similar to behaviour that’s seen in OCD, notes the psychologist. “Feeling anxious about something and using compulsions as a way of managing that anxiety is common for a lot of anxiety disorders,” Dr Touroni tells Cosmopolitan UK. But the problem is, “the ‘safety behaviour’ that was supposed to relieve the anxiety often ends up amplifying it.””

And this really is what is happening to many people. They are latching onto misinformation, or wallowing in fear of the unknown, and it continues to get worse the longer this goes on and the more they are scouring social media for information.

But if we know the reasons why we keep doing it, we also have the power to adjust our behavior towards things that do not make us even more anxious. That might seem difficult, but it is possible.

For many of us, it’s probably even a necessity, because we can’t live without lowering our anxiety a little bit.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a31896434/coronavirus-reading-scary-news-obsessed/