COPING WITH CONSTANT CRISIS

Every day brings a new headline: war, genocide, soaring inflation, social fracture, political collapse, and the resurgence of the far right. The crises seem endless, each one stacked on the last, and even when the events are unfolding far from home, the psychological toll is immediate and often overwhelming.

- By KELLIE GILLESPIE-WRIGHT

With 24-hour rolling news and constant access to updates through our phones, the stream of information rarely stops long enough for mind or body to recover. It's no wonder a growing number of people across the UK are feeling the emotional strain of constant global crisis. 'We are living in an environment our nervous systems simply weren't designed for,' says Dr Sophie Mort, clinical psychologist and author of A Manual for Being Human. 'An almost constant stream of distressing, often horrifying news. Each headline registers as a potential threat, activating our fight, flight, freeze system. In small bursts that system is protective, but when it's triggered over and over, with no pause to recover, people get stuck in a state of chronic reactivity. The body remains braced, the mind alert, and we never quite come down.'

On top of that physical strain sits something more psychological. 'We are bombarded not only with atrocities, but also with a breakdown in shared reality,' says Dr Mort. 'People swear black is black while others are equally certain black is white. AI-generated images and videos flood our feeds, eroding our confidence in even our own eyes. Trust, which is integral to feeling safe and well, becomes harder to locate. Without trust and certainty, the world feels unstable at its core, and our nervous systems keep scanning for danger.'