Benjamin D. Garber, PhD

We all have some. Anxiety is the low-level, background tension that interrupts sleep at the smell of smoke or the sound of a baby crying. It’s the almost-unnoticed pressure that sparks a yelp! when something startles you.

Everyone has anxiety. It’s the pressure that fills the balloon. It’s the tension that keeps us alert and reactive, aware and engaged. But like the air that fills that balloon, anxiety can become too much, the pressure too high, to the point that all it takes is a pin-prick to explode. Here are three rules to help let the air out of the balloon.

I’d be glad to fill your head with silver-lining ideas about how a virus spreading across the globe is killing hundreds of thousands, destroying economies, forcing incalculable debt upon our children and their children, fueling racism, and locking down borders is a good opportunity for family time. But let’s not talk about those things. Let’s talk about your kids.