"Excessive worry about COVID-19 is becoming a mental health pandemic unto itself. But when is anxiety useful, and when is it destructive? At UC Berkeley, Sonia Bishop , associate professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience, has studied anxiety and how it affects decision-making.
Among other discoveries, Bishop’s research has found that anxious people make worse decisions amid uncertainty, that certain weaknesses in the brain’s wiring are linked to anxiety and that doing crossword puzzles and other brain-sharpening activities helps reduce anxiety. In a Q & A below, Bishop talks to Berkeley News about how to manage anxiety amid the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and achieve a measure of peace and quality of life in the coming weeks and months."