There is something potentially more dangerous circulating through our cities and communities than even the dreaded COVID-19 virus. In a word: fear.
Fear is unequivocally contagious. Unlike toilet paper, there’s no shortage of stimuli aimed to spike the peoples’ collective anxiety. Go to the grocery store and you’re lucky to come out with half of what was on your list. Turn on the TV and get your dose of both political promises and projected problems. A flip of your phone shows that you “accidentally” missed a call from your employer about the potential store shutdown you discussed yesterday.
There’s no doubt about it, people are getting more than their daily dose of cortisol, otherwise known as the stress hormone! Every day brings new challenges – some foreseen, others not. Facing unknown circumstances warrants an automatic stress reaction, stemming all the way back to the fight-or-flight survival response that’s managed by the body’s adrenal and corresponding systems. The heightened state of awareness can certainly be beneficial in life or death circumstances, optimizing your odds of survival. This conscious state can keep you keen to potential risks and any avenues that you can take to negate them: like maintaining proper social distance! However, there’s another, not so beneficial side effect of this modus operandi of increased personal sensitivity.
