Every year, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication surveys a representative sample of Americans to gauge “top public worries” about climate change, policy, and general concerns among those living in the United States.
In September 2025, the program revealed a few key findings about what Americans — often across political divides — said were causing them the most amount of stress.
The top three sources of worry were government corruption (54%), cost of living and the economy (48%), and the state of democracy in the U.S. (44%).
About a third of respondents also said they were “very worried” about issues like global warming, and about one-fourth shared their fears over job security.
Around 43% of U.S. adults also reported that their screen usage is higher than they would like, with 30% reporting that they were online “almost constantly,” according to Digital Journal.
At the same time, mental and physical health care is increasingly inaccessible. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly half of the 60 million adults and children living with mental health conditions in the U.S. go without treatment every year.
And those who do seek care must navigate a fragmented and costly system full of prohibitive obstacles.
With the passage of the Senate’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in the summer of 2025, these issues will be even more compounded. The bill significantly cuts Medicaid, making it even harder for low-income Americans to access care. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 11.8 million people will lose Medicaid coverage by 2034.
With all of this in mind, we called licensed therapists and mental health professionals to gather some wisdom for how we can all best move ahead in these uncertain times.
We distilled the top five issues plaguing the majority of Americans — political unrest, climate change, workplace stress, personal issues, and digital burnout — and asked these experts: How do we keep going?
Their answers are below. They absolutely do not replace traditional therapy or mental health treatment, but we hope they can provide some relief and direction in a time where we could all use a bit more of both.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Meet the experts: 3 therapists help us navigate modern American life
Dr. Jenny Taitz | @drjennytaitz
Dr. Jenny Taitz is a clinical psychologist with specialties in acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. Her latest book “Stress Resets: How to Soothe Your Body and Mind in Minutes” provides practical solutions to help you cope with whatever comes up in daily life.
Crystal Britt | @itscrystalbritt
Crystal Britt is a licensed clinical social worker providing psychotherapy for neurodivergent clients and highly sensitive folks like herself. Diagnosed with ADHD and autism later in life, she provides resources to people experiencing burnout, helps identify sensory needs, and leads "therapeutic gaming” through Dungeons & Dragons.
Alex Mammadyarov | @alexmammadyarov
Alex Mammadyarov is a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist. She works with clients processing all types of grief — from losing a loved one to family estrangement — as well as those navigating transitions, experiencing anxiety, and working through trauma. Her debut book “Growing Through Grief” is on shelves now.
These are the things worrying Americans most — and how to cope with them
Political Unrest
Jenny Taitz: Let’s start by validating your worry. You’re a caring person that cares deeply. But you can also do something that helps. Can you donate to someone in need? Can you get involved in a grassroots organization? It’s easy to minimize the impact of a difference, but it’s not nothing.
Crystal Britt: With the kind of political atmosphere we find ourselves in today, a lot of my clients frankly feel a responsibility to fix every problem or heal the whole world.
A great practice in this case would be to consider your own capacities and one issue you're most passionate about, and focus time and energy there, as opposed to spiraling about every issue that is upsetting to our nervous system.
Our brains are doing their job when they are triggered by something unjust or cruel, but our brains were not meant to see the volume of cruel and unjust things in the world at the rate we do.
Alex Mammadyarov: Political unrest is another area of American life that can make us feel powerless and even hopeless. What tends to amplify those feelings is self-isolation. For that reason, it is vital that we tap into community. By taking care to spend time with our people, we can exchange feelings and ideas, create a sense of unity, and foster hope.
Climate Anxiety
Jenny Taitz: Climate anxiety is so understandable, and it’s a sign that you care about the world, which is a beautiful thing.
One of the biggest things that helps with anxiety is to be productive and do something that’s actually helpful.
Can you eliminate meat on Mondays? Can you use a refillable water bottle? Identify a way you can instill small, positive change, rather than thinking “the world is burning.”
Crystal Britt: Specifically for neurodivergent folks, the number one thing I would recommend to confront climate anxiety is spending time in person with other people.
This can even mean parallel play hangouts — they don’t need to be task-oriented! Because of our individualistic society, a lot of us are dealing with all of these big, scary issues in isolation, leaving us with highly sensitive nervous systems that like to ruminate, in addition to even feeling helpless or powerless.
Knowing we are together in these feelings can give us a lot of power back.
Alex Mammadyarov: We can cope with climate anxiety in two parts: Allowing ourselves the space to grieve what once was and what may be, and channeling that grief into healing action.
We might use a mantra such as, “This grief is a natural response to the loss of seasons, traditions, and places as I once knew them, and it is safe and even productive to allow this feeling.”
To reclaim some sense of agency, which loss often strips us of, we can do our part in our respective corners, perhaps by joining climate initiatives.
Digital Burnout
Jenny Taitz: Social media apps are designed to suck you in, so it’s important to take a step back and figure out what would help you with stimulus control. Get data on how much time you are spending on your phone, and then figure out what you need to do.
Maybe remove an app from your phone and just keep it on your desktop, or set a timer to keep track of where you want to be spending your time.
Crystal Britt: If you want to spend less time on screens, consider how your body feels, and instead of setting timers to get off your phone (since all of us ADHD folk know that doesn’t work), maybe set a timer for a body check-in where you ask yourself, “How does my brain feel? How does my body feel? Do I need water? Do I need to stand up?”
Engaging with the physical space around us can sometimes help us move from the digital space and into our bodies (where all the anxiety from the digital burnout goes).
Alex Mammadyarov: Digital burnout is so common today because we use devices and social media for multiple aspects of daily life – work, entertainment, connection. It can feel like the only way to be informed; however, it’s extremely important to put a cap on this.
Consider turning off notifications at a certain hour, trusting you have become informed enough for today, and pivoting to relaxing or tactile activities that don’t involve devices like reading a book or doing a puzzle.
Workplace Stress
Jenny Taitz: An acronym I love to use is by psychiatrist David Burns, who came up with TIC-TOC, or task-interfering cognitions and task-orienting conditions.
What we want to do is replace a thought that interferes with your task with one that orients you back to your task. For example, a TIC might be “This is too much work; I can’t do it,” and a TOC would be, “I know I can do this for 20 minutes.”
Crystal Britt: I recommend a shielding meditation to clients before they go into work (or start their day working inside their home!) and a clear-your-energy meditation afterwards.
Emotional shielding meditations sometimes include imagining a Glinda-type bubble around you, where you allow all of the day’s mess and inconveniences to bounce off of you.
A clearing energy meditation can help you do a reset after work ends at the end of the day, so your body can return to a more rested state.
Alex Mammadyarov: When we don’t create clear boundaries between our personal and professional selves, we run the risk of experiencing workplace burnout.
Workplace and digital burnout often overlap because our devices create too much of a link between those parts of self, which can then feel challenging to separate. We also may subconsciously utilize work as a distraction from other aspects of our lives that need tending to.
Try to notice if you are taking on more than is expected of you, and if that is the case, ask yourself this question: “What might I be avoiding outside of work?”
Personal & Relational Stress
Jenny Taitz: I love the mantra “avoid avoiding.” We don’t need to have difficult conversations when emotions are big and intense, but when emotion comes down, we need to have difficult conversations.
Things won’t get better if you let them fester, and you can approach any challenge with warmth rather than hostility.
Crystal Britt: Anecdotally, a lot of the clients that I see that are neurodivergent or highly sensitive also previously spent a lot of time masking and people-pleasing to help other people around them cope well, sacrificing their own emotional well-being and not even realizing it.
The first step is noticing these patterns and finding ways to unmask or live authentically within our relationships, which then gives us the tools we need to navigate external stressors to the best of our ability.
Alex Mammadyarov: When it comes to personal and relational stress, it’s important to remember that we have to put our metaphorical oxygen mask on first before helping another. Sometimes, this idea brings up guilt; however, if we work on lessening our own stress, we can actually be of greater support to those around us.
Check in with yourself to make sure you’re not pouring from an empty cup, and remember that you also deserve to experience fullness in any way that is available to you.
A version of this article was originally published in The 2026 Mental Health Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image and illustrations by Carra Sykes/Good Good Good
