[Everglow.]

You're right in that it's inevitable that news like this is disturbing and worrying. I think you're very much not alone in feeling that your anxiety is even higher than usual as a result of the pandemic, especially when this far on there seems to still be a lot of bad news. I've felt my anxiety spike because of this too. It's great that you're reaching out for support though. One of the best ways to handle increased anxiety is to share it with other people so it's less of a burden on your mind only. Talking to people about how you feel can stop you feeling less isolated, so I hope that this helps in that way. If you have any friends or family you feel safe and comfortable with, maybe you can talk to them too. I found that when I spoke to people, a lot of them felt the same as I did, and it helped to feel like I had a safe person to then turn to when I was struggling later on too.

TH has a couple of really useful articles you could try reading too, such as this and this. There's some useful tips in there about how to keep your mind occupied and stop it become overwhelmed with negative stuff and many of these tips are ones I've used and found really helpful too.

It's also important to remember that, while this pandemic is still bringing bad news, there's been huge improvements since it first began which give us a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. It's sad that people are still getting very ill, and that in some cases this leads to deaths as a result of coronavirus, but so many people who may have gotten seriously ill in the past, are no longer getting so sick because of improvements in medicine. Especially vaccines, which in the UK where I live seem to have let the case numbers stabilize and reduced the amount of deaths by a lot. It's been a long two years and I think it's natural to feel burnt out by the anxiety all of this has caused, but try to challenge yourself if you can to look at what's going on behind the scenes. Research is improving all the time, and the more people we have getting vaccinated, the more 'normal' life will become again. It's something to cling onto when you're not feeling so great about things.