Maintaining Mental Wellbeing in Uncertain, Chaotic Times
By Mo Ford
World Mental Health Day - 10th October 2025
This year’s World Mental Health Day has a theme of mental health and wellbeing in humanitarian crisis. Reflecting on this theme might lead us to consider a number of questions - like what can be done to support people during and after disaster and conflict situations; how our mental health might be (or has been) affected by experiencing crisis first hand; and how those of us lucky enough to be living in relative safety can maintain mental wellbeing while constantly exposed to distressing news. This post focuses on the last question, and what we can do to stay well in uncertain and distressing times.
The frequency with which those of us living in relatively safe and peaceful times learn about conflicts, state violence, environmental disasters and the like can be overwhelming. It may present a sobering reminder of the fragility of the systems, infrastructure, protections and freedoms that we may be enjoying. The seemingly relentless diet of bad news is also more information than we have capacity to digest. We might respond to this with anxiety, guilt, numbness, compartmentalising or a cycle of all of the above – our brains are always looking for ways to make sense of things and save some precious energy. What might this mean for our mental wellbeing, and how can we support ourselves and each other to find balance between being overwhelmed and checked out?
Firstly, it feels important to acknowledge that there’s discomfort in even considering how those of us outside of crisis situations can make it easier for ourselves to engage with the existence of distressing events that are not happening to us. I’m not sure that it can or even should be easy to become aware of others’ suffering, nor does the wellbeing of those witnessing emergencies take precedence over the safety and survival of those affected. Nevertheless, becoming overwhelmed and less mentally well does nothing to improve outcomes, either for people in crisis or for ourselves. We may wish to consider how we can contribute to support for a specific situation, and what resources we have available for this. And at the same time, we will most likely continue to have work to do, bills to pay, families and communities to support and day to day tasks to complete. So, we need to find ways to navigate this dramatic landscape while maintaining a sense of balance, and at times, we may be called upon to use our skills to support children, colleagues, friends or family members to do likewise. The business of maintaining wellbeing can often be packaged up and sold to us as a solo endeavour, but so much of what resources us can involve a team effort.
With all that in mind, here are some suggestions for maintaining mental wellbeing while the world feels increasingly unstable.
1. Hold lists of coping strategies like this one lightly!
Every person and every situation is different, so taking a curious, experimental and reflective approach to finding what works for you or someone you’re supporting is bound to be more effective than following a formula.
2. Limit doomscrolling
In an ‘attention economy’, strong emotional reactions increase engagement with content, and engagement increases profit. Most of the media we consume is set up to elicit intense reactions. I’m sure we’re all aware of this by now, and yet, many of us continue to get stuck scrolling through social media posts, news articles and so on, being exposed to distressing content and teaching algorithms to show us even more of it. Setting time limits and structured times to engage with news and political commentary can be helpful, whether it involves scheduling time to find out what’s going on in the world, using apps to limit our time on specific platforms or setting alarms.
3. Look for the helpers
Some of the overwhelm around the world’s many humanitarian crises comes from a sense of powerlessness and a feeling that nothing can be done to change them. It’s important that emergencies are witnessed and responded to, and that includes the stories of solidarity, community, courage, resilience and support (which, as previously alluded to, don’t always make the most profitable headlines). We might also feel inspired by this to take steps of our own to be part of efforts to help, however small.
4. Express and process
Witnessing crises can bring up big emotions, such as grief, fear, guilt, anger and despair. It’s well documented by now that young people in particular are reporting mental health issues related to fears of climate catastrophe, for example. For people with a particular stake in a crisis situation (such as those who left their home country prior to a crisis taking place), there may be an additional layer of worry, survivor guilt or vicarious trauma. And for anyone who feels things deeply and is emotionally invested in a particular situation, the impact of engaging with distressing news can feel debilitating. No matter who we are, it’s important that we have space to feel, process and express our emotions so that we don’t get stuck in them or supress them in a way that harms our mental and physical health. Sitting with, naming and giving ourselves permission to feel our feelings is important; and so is letting them go and taking steps to shift our energy so that we don’t get stuck. Taking this reflective space is something that’s generally not possible when we’re in the midst of an emergency situation ourselves, but while we’re experiencing relative safety, we can develop a practice of healthy engagement with our emotions.
5. Connect with community
It can feel isolating to be overwhelmed by the state of the world. Getting together with others, either to talk about it, do something about it, have a break from it all or ‘just’ do the important work of building supportive communities is a powerful tool in itself, and potentially even a building block of support and protection if we find ourselves in a crisis situation. When getting together involves an element of catharsis through discussing news that we feel anxious, angry or fearful about, it may be worth applying a similar principle to the doomscrolling discipline and limiting the space given to sitting with our feelings before shifting gears. Letting a bit of a difficult emotion go at a time can feel much more manageable than trying to tackle it all at once.
6. Normalise the response, not the situation
This is about recognising that being shocked, angry and scared about atrocities, the senseless loss of life and an apparent increase in hate and division is normal, justified and rational. While labels, a medical model perspective on mental health and attempts to regulate overwhelmed nervous systems all serve important purposes, there are some situations in which pathologising human reactions to awful situations may be less helpful. Although our responses to atrocity might sometimes become significant enough to spill over into mental illness (or exacerbate existing conditions), a perspective that locates the problem in the situation, rather than the person, might sometimes serve to remind us that our grief, fear, rage or freeze response is an entirely reasonable reaction to something that shouldn’t be happening. Again, this isn’t about dismissing anyone’s lived experience of mental illness, but about normalising the breadth of human experience, while working to prevent the normalisation of humanitarian crises.
7. Look at your sphere of influence
When things feel out of control, it can sometimes be helpful and grounding to narrow our focus and look at what we can influence. This isn’t about keeping a tight grip on controlling our environment, but rather about connecting with our capacity and reminding ourselves of where we can affect change and be part of moving things forward, even if it seems insignificant in the face of more pressing challenges in the world. This ‘zooming in’ process might remind us, or someone we are supporting, of what power we possess, and help to move past stuckness.
8. Listen to your body
At this point ‘listening to your body’ has become something of a cliché (and an annoyance to some people who struggle with sensing what’s going on in their body). But it’s achieved that status for a reason – our bodies are where we carry around so much of the stress, fear, heaviness and grief that we haven’t been able to express, and they serve as both a barometer for our emotions and a tool for re-regulating and self soothing. While fight or flight and trauma responses live in the body, so too do many of the tools that help us recover from them. So, it’s worth the effort of finding the techniques that work for you – paradoxically, mental health isn’t all about what happens in the mind.