The Certainty of Uncertainty

×Uncertainty Illustration

Anxiety, in its many permutations, is the most common mental health issue. And if you look under the mental hood of this malady, you’ll find one common denominator. Uncertainty.

What shrinks call “intolerance of uncertainty” fuels everything from generalized anxiety disorder to social anxiety to obsessive-compulsive disorder, not to mention many addictions. We humans simply dislike not knowing what the future holds, particularly when signs of disorder and chaos abound, such as climate change, political divisions, economic threats and the like.

Now, uncertainty comes in two primary packages; imposed and chosen. Some adventurous individuals enjoy the thrill of “What’s going to happen?” provided they have freely chosen to put themselves in that scenario and believ