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A close friend’s daughter was scheduled to get married in the summer of 2021 during the pandemic. In order to keep the wedding small and safe, her friend told me, “you can’t invite friends to the wedding.” However, I learned from her Facebook post that she had invited her friends. I’m not the only one. Feeling humiliated, I remained silent at first. But when we were together, it became awkward and I felt like we were growing closer together. And when I tried to discuss the growing rift, she requested a “pause” on our relationship via text and stopped contacting me for a year.
My first thought was to think the friendship was over. There was something very final about her tone, like a breakup and a resolution to the case. But after a while I asked myself what had happened and did she really know what she meant by excluding me? Perhaps there was more to this story. Despite the hurt, I tried to keep the issue and myself open. I discovered what Rebecca Solnit calls “the breadth of uncertainty,” or the realm of possibility. When my friend finally broke the silence with a message, I was ready to reconnect and move forward, even if I couldn’t answer all my questions.to respond to her rejection united nationsThat conviction gave me perspective and gave me the courage not to avoid her.
Humans naturally need answers and therefore generally dislike uncertainty. With presidential elections, wars breaking out in multiple regions, increasing climate change, and countless other upheavals, it’s easy to feel overwhelmingly anxious about the future and think of certainty as a beacon in darkening times.
However, with a new wave of scientific discoveries, Uncertainty in times of rapid change is not the royal road to anxiety as many of us assume, but a promising antidote to mental suffering. A growing body of evidence and a variety of new interventions show that skillful management of uncertainty in the face of the uncertain, new, and unexpected is an effective treatment for anxiety and recovery. It suggests that it is likely to build strength and be evidence of keen problem-solving abilities.
Learning how to fight uncertainty does not completely solve modern problems. But at the start of a new year filled with high-stakes unknowns, we need to reconsider the outdated concept of “not.” Instead of recognizing it as a weakness, discover this mindset as a strength. The significance of alleviating the suffering, division, and stalemate caused by today’s infectious disease epidemic is immeasurable.
Pandemic-era research provides an example of the beginnings of the relationship between uncertainty and prosperity. Researchers at Ohio State University found that adults who scored high on a scale of “intolerance of uncertainty” were more likely to suffer from stress and anxiety during the pandemic. Similar to personality tests, uncertainty intolerance assessments assess people’s tendency to view the unknown as a threat rather than a challenge. People who avoid the unknown tend to crave predictability and engage in dualistic thinking. Higher levels of intolerance of uncertainty are associated with more maladaptive coping responses during the pandemic, including denial, withdrawal from life, and substance abuse, a British study has found. In contrast, people who struggle less with uncertainty You are more likely to accept the reality of the situation.
“Life is inherently uncertain, and if you have difficulty dealing with it, you will have difficulty dealing with life,” says the professor of psychology at the University of Québec (Outaouais), who deals with uncertainty and Michel Dugas, a leading mental health researcher, says: .
Tolerating and enjoying uncertainty doesn’t just help you accept life’s unpredictability. It also prepares us to learn and adapt. Every day, the brain uses sophisticated mental models of how the world works and processes changing environments. When we encounter something unexpected, neural “prediction errors” signal the discrepancy between what we assumed would happen and what our senses tell us. However, the uneasy feeling of not knowing triggers many beneficial neural changes, including increased alertness, strengthened working memory, and sensitivity to new information. The brain is preparing to update its knowledge about the world. Stephanie Gorka of the Ohio State University School of Medicine says uncertainty “presents an opportunity for life to go in a different direction, and that’s exciting.”
This is why being open to uncertainty is important for your mental health. Pioneering research led by Dr. Dugas (who coined the term “intolerance of uncertainty”) and Nicholas Carleton of the University of Regina in Canada shows that intolerance of uncertainty can lead to anxiety, eating disorders, and depression. It has been shown to be associated with vulnerability to mental health problems such as illness. . After more than 20 years of spade work, they and their colleagues have found ways to improve such disorders by treating people’s fear of the unknown, or as Dr. Carlton calls “the one fear that rules them all.” has begun to improve effectively.
A recent randomized controlled study led by Dr. Dugas focused on reducing aversion to the unknown by having 60 people with generalized anxiety disorder experience more uncertainty in smaller doses. Twelve individual therapy sessions focused on In doing so, patients can realize that uncertainty is not necessarily synonymous with weakness. For example, patients who believed that feelings of uncertainty at work were hindering their productivity learned that they could take on new responsibilities and be effective in situations filled with unknowns.
In Dr. Dugas’ study, participants who completed the program suffered significantly less from depression, and that improvement was maintained a year later, with levels of worry and anxiety falling to levels typically experienced by the general population. .
Another randomized controlled study, led by Ivan Moulton at the University of Washington, looked at 75 people with multiple sclerosis, a highly unpredictable condition, and focused away from, for example, painful thoughts about the condition. They conducted seven psychotherapy sessions aimed at helping them come to terms with uncertainty, including fixing themselves. Dr. Moulton said preliminary, unpublished results show that participants reported feeling more resilient and able to bounce back from adversity even after four months in the program. Furthermore, as people’s tolerance for uncertainty improved, so did their resilience.
For Dr. Dugas and others, the future of this research is not just about alleviating the fear of the unknown, but importantly, how uncertainty can strengthen our thinking. It lies in recognizing that something is true. As National Cancer Institute Chief Scientist Paul K.J. It’s about cultivating a culture that tolerates uncertainty, where heart, flexibility, and curiosity are born. It is prized. Dr. Hann, who studies uncertainty in medicine, works with Norwegian colleagues to train medical students and doctors to “exploit” uncertainty. For example, by recognizing that there is often no single right answer in medicine, doctors begin to investigate different aspects of a problem and use uncertainty to find the best solution, not just the first. you can find a solution.
Such efforts are increasingly needed not only in medicine but also in other fields. A 2022 study found that epistemic hubris, or unwarranted beliefs about complex policy issues such as gun control, is “common and bipartisan” among U.S. adults.evidence suggests And some leading psychologists believe that intolerance of uncertainty is on the rise. Our devices may play a role, similar to society’s cult of efficiency, as answers flow instantly.
In essence, uncertainty requires a serious admission that the world is unpredictable, dynamic, and flawed, and so are we. This is an approach that recognizes that knowledge, and the strength of our own minds, derives from its very mutability. It is the realm of second chances.
Now my friend and I talk and even have a laugh or two. I’ve never really learned her true motives for acting that way, and she probably never will. I cannot predict whether our bond will last. However, I felt that being open to her uncertainty during that difficult time allowed me to consider the possibilities beyond my initial assumption that she intended to sever our ties. I am. Not knowing was a consolation, an inspiration, an opportunity to learn that the solution may be an ongoing and never-ending work in matters of the heart and beyond.
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