 What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And today we're going to be talking about some of the anxiety surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. So I'm somebody who has been diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder. So my anxiety hits me left and right and it doesn't take much to trigger it. All right, I can start freaking out about seemingly meaningless things. So when everywhere you look, it's talking about this new virus outbreak. My brain wants to go to the worst places possible and it's something that can completely, completely take over my day. And I know a lot of you out there struggle with anxiety as well. So what I wanted to do was discuss some of the ways that I personally cope with this type of anxiety and hopefully it can help you out too. All right, but before we get started, before we get started, there have been a couple hundred deaths surrounding the coronavirus and it's tragic. And my heart goes out to anybody who has experienced a loss from the virus. And as I discussed this video and how I personally cope with it, just know that I don't mean to minimize or trivialize any of the deaths surrounding this virus. I'm just a guy with an anxiety disorder trying to share my experience of how I cope with this. All right, so as somebody with anxiety, something I try to do is think logically and rationally. All right, like fear, anxiety, these are all very natural parts of the human experience. Some of you who have been around my channel for a while, I talk about the biological mechanisms that come with anxiety. I educate myself about that because it helps me, like knowing the inner workings of my brain helps me even further manage my anxiety, all right? So being worried, being scared, these are very normal but anxiety takes it to a whole new level. And when we're experiencing anxiety, like for me, I get completely irrational. I start worrying about things that I shouldn't be worrying about it. Like my brain is like chicken little, the sky is falling and I will freak the hell out. So in order to step back and start thinking more logically and rationally, what I do is I start looking up statistics, I bust out calculators and start calculating percentages if those percentages aren't already available, all right? So currently, according to the New York Times, and this was just updated a few hours ago, I believe a bunch of news outlets have updated or are currently updating the number of deaths surrounding the coronavirus. So currently there are a little over 250 confirmed deaths, all right? And we have thousands of confirmed cases. There are some here in the United States. Other ones are spreading to different parts of the world, all right? But again, something I try to do is look at the actual numbers, all right? So what I've done is I've checked out the percentages around this. So most of these deaths are in China, all right? So first, let's look at where this virus originated and that's in Wuhan, China, all right? So the most recent population number that they've shown is Wuhan has a population of over 11 million people, all right? So I wasn't able to find exactly all of the locations where these deaths have been confirmed, but let's just say, let's just say to narrow it down, narrow it down to best case scenario, 11 million population, 250 people have died from this. So that is 0.002% of the population has died from this. And when looking at that number like that, that is less than 1% of people in one area of China. And that helps me think about the bigger picture, like how many people are dying from different things? You know what I mean? Automobile accidents, cancer, heart disease, other forms of illness that we deal with every day. So looking at the coronavirus, 0.002% of this population, but this virus is spreading, all right? More and more people in China are being affected by it. So let's look at the entire population of China which clocks in at over 3 billion people. So let's say all 250 deaths are in China, that percentage is 0.00008%. All right? And these are the things that just helped me, like looking at it like, I can look at this when my anxiety is kicking in. I'm like, oh wow, that's not even a full percentage. That is a fraction of a percentage. Like how much do I really need to worry about this right now? Like is my anxiety justified? That's something I ask myself all the time, like when I'm experiencing anxiety, I ask myself, is my anxiety justified? So let's real quick, let's compare the coronavirus to the regular everyday flu. So according to the CDC report, all right? We've seen an increase of 65% when it comes to flu deaths, all right? Currently in 2020, and we're only a month into this year, there are 4,800 confirmed deaths from the flu, all right? That's pretty crazy when you think about it, you know? And luckily, like one thing that's different between the flu and the coronavirus is that we actually have vaccines for the flu, right? And something that they're working on is a vaccine for the coronavirus. But again, it helps me to compare these numbers. So I also do this with my anxiety around flying. So in 2019, worldwide, the entire planet, okay? 561 people died in plane crashes, right? So every time we're getting on a plane, we're like, oh my God, what if I die, what if I die, what if I die? Well, that's a worldwide number, 561. Well, last year in the United States alone, so that's not even a worldwide number, there were over 37,000 deaths from car accidents, right? So driving is something that I do every single day. I maybe fly on a good year, three or four times a year. Driving is something I do every single day. So if I'm going to have anxiety about something, it should be driving. And driving anxiety is a whole different video, all right? My main tip for that is do not drive next to gigantic trucks, helps me out a lot. So the second primary thing that I do to manage my anxiety around the news of the coronavirus is I refuse. I absolutely refuse to let the media scare me. Absolutely refuse, all right? Whenever there's any type of virus outbreak, it is like Viagra for journalists and media outlets, right? Like as long as I've been alive, I'm 34 years old and from SARS to H1N1 to, you know, bird flu and what was it in the 90s, mad cow disease and all that. Like whenever a virus breaks out, they start salivating, they cannot wait to report these things and I do not let them scare me, okay? In recent years since the explosion of social media, we have to understand that now that print media is slowly dying out, it's all about clicks. That's how these media outlets make their money now is by getting clicks. So they have to sensationalize these headlines in order to get us clicked. Like I feel bad for the journalists because I'm sure there are a lot of very ethical journalists out there. Like, oh my God, I hate having to write such a ridiculous title around this article, you know what I mean? But one of the most powerful emotions out there is fear, you know what I mean? So that's one of the reasons that they do this. So again, like I don't let the media scare me. Like according to the World Health Organization, over 800,000 people each year are dying from suicide. Like I think the way they average it was like every four seconds, someone's taking their own life. So these are much bigger problems and when it comes to things like mental health problems and addiction problems, like these things are causing more deaths than any outbreak we've ever seen since like what, like polio? You know what I mean? So I would much rather that news outlets and media organizations, I'd much rather them focus on these things that have been taking thousands upon thousands upon thousands of lives every single year and no trend shows them like even coming close to slowing down. If anything, a lot of these issues are becoming worse. So I'd rather them focus on these huge issues that are constantly plaguing us and families are getting destroyed because of these deaths rather than getting this media boner every time a new strand of an illness comes out. You know what I mean? But anyways, last thing I wanna do, if you haven't checked it out yet, which you probably have because I have over four million views, go check out the video that Dr. Mike put out. I absolutely love that guy because he brings common sense and rationality to all these health issues. And he talks a lot about mental health, so I respect that dude a ton. All right, I'm gonna link his video down in the description below. But if you have any tips for how you manage your anxiety around news like the coronavirus, like do me a favor and leave some comments down below because these are just some ways that I manage it and maybe you have some better tips than I do. All right, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And I wanna send out a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon as well as anybody who supports the channel through buying my mental health books on the rewiredsoul.com or my mental health merch. You're all amazing. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.