When Everything Changes and Nothing Feels Controllable: On Uncertainty, Anxiety Therapy, and What Actually Helps
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 15
One of the big challenges we are facing nowadays is how quickly things are changing around us, and the impression that we have very limited control over them. This triggers a sense of powerlessness, of being stuck or paralyzed by an overwhelming situation. We try to prepare, but every attempt falls short, which starts to affect how we perceive and feel ourselves.
The Limits of Control and Why Accepting Them Matters
There are indeed things we could do to address this uncertainty and navigate it with a clearer perspective, although facing it takes us to a universal reality that is sometimes challenging to accept, which is that we cannot control everything. The things that produce the most anxiety are often precisely the things that fall outside our scope.
Recognizing our limitations is not resignation. As humans, we cannot control all outcomes, yet we still have the emotional capacity to experience unpleasant emotions triggered by unexpected situations. As Dr. Tasneem Rodriguez has noted in her piece about creating space, stepping back from what overwhelms us is not avoidance. It is what makes continued engagement possible.
Seeing a therapist creates a space to experience and navigate these processes of acceptance in a meaningful way and to connect with ourselves. For some, this is a huge action. For others, it can be part of a group of actions to manage the uncertainty.
In therapy, we can improve our focus on what we can control, develop skills to be more present to what is actually happening rather than what we fear might happen, face situations that overwhelm us, and manage discomfort with curiosity.
Anxiety Therapy: What Anxiety About Uncertainty Actually Looks Like
Anxiety in the context of rapid, uncontrollable change tends to manifest as a chronic state of alertness. It narrows focus, makes ordinary decisions feel weighted, and produces a sense of exhaustion.
The clinical work in anxiety therapy is not about eliminating anxiety as a response, but about finding a different relationship to it, one that allows us to remain oriented without requiring certainty.
Uncertainty produces real difficulty. Having clinical support while navigating it is, for many people, what makes it navigable at all.
Dr. Dennis Santana is a licensed clinician at Real Talk Clinical Psychology in Houston, Texas, specializing in anxiety therapy. Real Talk Clinical Psychology is a doctoral-level group practice in Houston, Texas, offering psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy in four languages. We accept BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare. Learn more at realtalkpsychology.com.
