The coronavirus outbreak disrupted the world order. Many might find it stressful to read news about hiccups of food supplies, small and medium enterprises closed down due to lack of business activities and income, how people find it difficult to repay housing and car loans, how unemployment rate increases and more people might have to sleep rough.

To sum it up, this is a great level of anxiety to deal with. If one factors in the psychological pressure one might have to deal with when others in the society disagree with the way they protect themselves from being infected, that is simply unbearable for many among us.

I have some sort of anxiety like everybody else does. To claim that we are not concerned about the grave economic situation and our own future is simply a lie to fool ourselves. However, I still look at the bright side of how we cope with the challenge: more people are getting used to work from home and thus reduced commuting and carbon emission; more businesses are converting to e-commerce model; and more people put necessities before luxuries.

Buying and reading a book on the topic of anxiety is another way for me to cope with the situation in a positive manner. As usual, it is a new book written and published by American psychiatric researchers.

冠型肺炎擾亂了世界秩序,很多人讀了一些新聞可能會覺得焦慮。例如糧食供應鏈受到干擾、商業活動與收入劇減意味著一些中小型企業必須關門大吉、民眾償還汽車與房屋貸款可能覺得吃力、失業率攀升、更多人變成睡街邊的街友。

簡單來說,這是相當程度的焦慮。若社會上有人不同意閣下保護自己不受感染的防疫措施,這個心理壓力恐怕是很多人都無法承受之重。

我跟其他人也有一定程度的焦慮。在這個經濟環境欠佳、各自前景未明的非常時期說自己毫不憂心,這其實是自欺欺人的謊言。但我依然選擇看到積極正面的方向:愈來愈多人居家辦公因此減少了通勤的需要與碳排放量;愈來愈多公司轉戰線上經營模式;愈來愈多人注重生活必需品而不是奢侈品。

我另一個積極正面迎接挑戰的方法就是閱讀焦慮課題的新書。一如往常,又是美國精神科研究人員出版的新書。