Covid Anxiety and Substance Abuse
By: Brian Murray, LMHC, NCC Covid has created a psychological mind storm since breaking out nearly a year ago. Counseling for anxiety searches on Google tripled in just one-month last March and continues to dominate as one of the leading mental health searches. Anxiety is closely followed by depression as a mental health concern. It shows that after Covid arrived in the United States there was an upheaval in people trying to get a handle on anxiety. Anxiety is a natural response our mind produces that basically gives us two choices which is fight or flight. When we feel cornered and there is no escape, we tend to fight. If we have options to escape, we tend to flee. Panic which is also a form of anxiety is when we feel like we can do neither and feel trapped with no way out. Covid has certainly created all three of these types of anxiety scenarios. If we are to flee then we isolate and avoid others and try to shrink ourselves to the threat. To fight may mean we jo...