2 minute read
Column: As campus life resumes, COVID-19 anxiety intensifies
Alison Sivitz Staff Columnist
The past four months have been bleak. I haven’t entered a single establishment, all of my grocery orders have been conducted via curbside pickup and my only consistent companion is Iain Stirling — the narrator of “Love Island” U.K. — because he’s the only person who can’t get voted off and break my heart.
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But despite this isolation — and despite COVID-19 cases continually rising across the county — my level of concern and preparedness has not been shared by everybody. The time I’ve spent making fun of British couples from the comfort of my couch has been spent by many peers breathing heavily at crowded social gatherings and many Pitt administrators breathing heavily while pitching tents. Given this major discrepancy in attitudes toward COVID-19, I — and people like me — am left worrying that, come time to re-enter our poorly
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regulated campus setting, the last few months of isolation and sacrifice will have been for nothing.
These worries can be debilitating, and while I haven’t been able to control the behavior of irresponsible peers and administrators, I have figured out a few
Sunday Morning
10:30am
Holy Eucharist
All are welcome!
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
328 6th Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Easily accessible by bus!
trinitycathedralpgh.org
ways to curb the bouts of health-related anxiety that result from watching their recklessness. Here are a few ways that you can, too.
Put the phone down
This one’s for all the people whose browsers have recently added The New York Times’ coronavirus vaccine tracker to their list of most visited sites.
While it’s imperative to stay alert and informed about the pandemic, there’s a fine line between healthy engagement and “doomscrolling,” which leaves our minds “trapped in a vicious cycle of negativity.” Limiting phone usage can majorly mitigate this negativity, as constant screen exposure and information influx exacerbate the issue of an already racing brain, leading to sleep disruptions and worsened anxiety.
If possible, start each morning without immediately checking your phone. Just 15 screenless minutes at the top of the day allows our brains to boot up without immediate overstimulation. Not only does this leave us feeling more centered for the rest of the day, but it can promote the processing of information in a more calm and healthy manner. Similarly, stepping away from screens See Sivitz on page 33
