How do you deal with it?
A looming future…
Door Ingrid Ştefan
By Ingrid Ştefan
Ingrid Ştefan
Have you found yourself worrying a lot lately? Have you been feeling hypervigilant? Are you checking the news constantly? You’re not the only one.
With a war in Gaza, a war in Ukraine, the Trump administration messing around, and the rise of the far-right across Europe, waking up in 2025 and facing everyday politics feels like a challenge to a lot of people. The question of what’s going to happen next is constantly looming over them.
What they are experiencing is called political anxiety. And it’s not surprising at all they feel this way, says Kees Aarts, UG professor in political institutions and behaviour. ‘I understand feelings of anxiety now much more than in my young age, because the future is uncertain.’
But what exactly is political anxiety? What makes people feel this way and how can you deal with it?
Uncertainty
According to Aarts, it has to do with people’s confidence in the political environment they live in. ‘We trust political institutions to do their job, and they usually do’, he explains. But when things just don’t work as expected, distrust grows. ‘People fear a crisis is coming, and that’s anxiety, the sense that things aren’t as they should be. It might not turn out as bad as they’d expect, but it can still disturb their sleep.’
People have the sense that things aren’t as they should be
From a basic psychological perspective, anxiety relates to perceived distant threats, things that can occur oftentimes in the future, says Brian Ostafin, associate professor in psychology. ‘You experience worry about something bad happening, which can create hypervigilance.’
There’s a sense of uncertainty involved, he explains. ‘You don’t know when it’s going to occur, if it’s going to occur, how bad it’s going to be, or if you’ll be able to respond to it.’
In small doses, anxiety is actually beneficial. But if the fear of uncertainty grows too much, it can lead to anxiety disorders. ‘Nicholas Carlton has argued that fear of the unknown is the primary source for anxiety’, he says. ‘We tested this theory, comparing it with fear of death or pain, and found that the fear of uncertainty was most strongly related to anxiety.’
Constructing meaning
That’s just one side to understanding political anxiety, though. The other has to do with meaning-making structures in society. ‘Uncertainty is constrained by models of the world, or the ways we construct meaning in society. Our goals and values influence the meaning of everything we come across, and they guide us through interactions in different situations, allowing us to pursue what’s valuable.’
Politics is one such meaning-making structure. ‘For example, human rights don’t exist objectively. But it’s a way in which we structure the world and understand ourselves and other people’, Ostafin says. Such collective values have created a base for our political identity. ‘If you throw them out the window, you get uncertainty and chaos.’
Throw collective values out the window and you get uncertainty and chaos
And that’s what he believes is happening now. ‘I’m no political scientist, but recent history suggests there is a decrease in the values of alliance and collaboration and an increase in powerful nations taking more at the expense of the less powerful.’ It’s a big shift, he thinks, and it can be difficult to accept it.
Aarts, who is a political scientist, seems to agree: there is a change in alliances that contributes to anxiety. ‘The future is more uncertain because big powers like Russia, the USA, and even China are less predictable’, he says. ‘Most obviously, we see that in the breakdown of NATO. I grew up with the certainty that the US and Europe thought the same. It’s the world we knew, but that’s not true anymore.’
It’s not just a bottom-up feeling, though, he stresses. ‘Politicians have told us that over and over again in the past months.’ There are two sides to the matter, Aarts thinks. ‘If some people would say that we are being lured into higher defence spending, they are probably also right.’
Strategies
While the cause of political anxiety is increased uncertainty, the solution to it is not so clear-cut. But there are some strategies to consider, Ostafin says. The first step would be accepting that you can’t control everything, and trying to control what you can, like your attention.
‘Very often, our attention is automatically drawn to emotionally relevant things’, he explains. But we need to differentiate between a healthy and unhealthy preoccupation. ‘We can feed certain areas of our lives by devoting attention to them.’
You can’t control politics, but you can control how you deal with your values. ‘If you value equality and democracy, you should give attention to that. You can protest, you can volunteer, you can write things for the newspaper, or you can have conversations. This will help you live out your own values.’
To Aarts, that’s not only beneficial for personal health, but also for the health of a democracy. ‘Do what you can do. But please fight. It’s crucial to make contributions where you can, and it will help decrease anxiety’, he says.
Taking a step back
Of course, it’s just as important to know when to take a step back. ‘We’re not just political animals, we’re much more than that’, Ostafin explains. And to realise it, you need to focus on things that are ‘local’ to your own life, like relationships and hobbies. ‘Do what brings you deep meaning, because that can have a direct impact on your life and can help to reduce overwhelming uncertainty.’
Whereas focusing too much on things like news can actually distract you from life, he thinks. ‘Now with the internet, we’re constantly overexposed to information. And when you have too much of it, that’s when you get uncertainty.’
It’s crucial to make contributions where you can
That’s because so many issues are calling for attention, and as biological animals, it becomes hard for humans to process them all. ‘You can’t escape the world and avoid it. But you need to find clarity in what is important to you and commit to that. Then you can let the other stuff be.’
For Aarts, however, it’s not overexposure to information that leads to anxiety. ‘In 1914, before the war started, news about the events was fragmented and unclear. There were rumors and a few newspapers, yet the anxiety was still very high, not because of an information overdose, but a lack of it.’ He thinks the trick is not in decreasing exposure, but in seeing the signal among the noise.
‘Three quarters of information nowadays is noise. So ask yourself: What is the message I should do something with? And what is just political rhetoric?’ he says. For now, the signal is clear to him: ‘The US is more on its own and Europe has to take care of itself.’
For those who feel this is not enough, Ostafin also recommends getting some mindfulness training. ‘That will allow you to let things be as they are. If they can’t be changed, perhaps that’s the wisest way of living.’ It’s about observing what is happening in your body, the sensations you feel, and the thoughts that come to mind.
‘With training, you first develop an awareness of the experiences you live. Then you work on having an accepting attitude towards them’, he says. Research, including from the UG, shows that it helps to have a less averse response to uncertainty. ‘The real benefit is that it reduces anxiety and allows you to put more energy into what really matters to you.’