The news that the UK recorded 78,610 daily Covid-19 cases on Wednesday has sent me shivering, and I can feel my anxiety rise with each passing article I see. From reading that we may need to cut down on socialising in order to salvage Christmas to concerns around rising hospitalisations, any lingering sense of normality I felt over the past few months has completely disappeared.

And it doesn’t stop with reading and watching the news. Open any social media app (Twitter in particular) and I’m flooded with information that subconsciously seeps into my brain with each scroll about deaths, cases and potential lockdowns. The result is the fear and anxiety I once had has begun to creep up again and it’s hanging over me like a damn mask-wearing cloud.

While I recognise it’s important to be informed and know what is happening in the world (especially for those who are forced to reckon with this awful virus every day, those with health concerns or vulnerable elderly relatives to worry about), I desperately fear going back into an anxiety-ridden Covid-19 hole that I’ll struggle to get out of if I don’t take a break away from the news for the sake of my mental health.

Covid-19: “Why I need to take a break from talking about Covid for my own mental health”