Fueled by AI and smoky skies, more Americans are struggling with 'anticipatory anxiety'

Anticipatory anxiety is excessive dread about an event or situation that hasn't happened yet. From political instability and the rapid adoption of AI, to unpredictable wildfires, anticipatory anxiety is something many are struggling with right now.

Researchers and clinicians describe it as an “anxiety state rooted in uncertainty.” Your emotions are “forward leaning,” in that your thoughts, behaviors, and mood all shift in advance to brace for a threat that may never show up.

Despite how awful it feels, this anxiety is meant to support your survival. Your brain, in its overzealous and well-meaning way, is trying to keep you safe. It runs scenarios, scans for threats, and keeps your internal alarm system on high alert, just in case.

More manageable worries can escalate into anticipatory anxiety when the brain is unable to forecast the size or shape of a future threat. Its job is to protect you, but it doesn’t know how, so it gets stuck in a loop.

So how do you get your brain to stop fueling fears about the future? Alma shares evidence-based strategies that can help.

Why anticipatory anxiety is on the rise

People are living through a genuine pileup of uncertainty, and the data show that its impact is being felt across the country.

In the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) 2024 mental health poll, Stress in America, more than 70% of U.S. adults reported feeling anxious about current events (with the economy, socio-political climate, and gun violence topping the list). In 2025, around three-quarters of adults said the future of the nation is a significant source of stress, which was similar to results in 2024.

Younger adults are feeling this acutely, as nearly two-thirds of those ages 18–34 said they've considered relocating to another country because of the state of the nation.

Here are four areas that are likely to be worsening anticipatory anxiety across the country.

1. The Political Climate

Political uncertainty is one of the most obvious contributing factors. Elections, legislation, policy reversals, international conflict, healthcare, economic security, civil rights, people's basic sense of belonging … are these words striking a chord?

Though according to research on the 2024 election, political stress has more to do with the news than it does politics: News-related stress was linked to higher odds of risk for generalized anxiety, distinct from stress specific to the election outcome, which showed no significant association.

And then there’s the lack of trust. The majority of adults reported very little to no trust in the U.S. government. When trust collapses, uncertainty expands and anticipatory anxiety rushes in to fill the space.

2. Artificial Intelligence

AI is quickly becoming its own driver of anticipatory anxiety. In 2025, 57% of adults called the rise of AI a significant source of stress, up from 49% the year before. Young adults ages 18-34 felt it most, with 65% reporting AI-related stress, up from 52% just a year earlier.

The anxiety associated with AI seems to have a few moving parts. First is thinking about the capability of these tools and whether they'll make you replaceable in terms of your work. Secondly, feelings of tension, fear, loss, and some helplessness around AI creep into every aspect of the day. And finally, there’s your own actions related to AI, which may be balanced or swing between two extremes: avoiding it entirely or leaning on it far too hard.

Whatever your relationship with AI happens to be, there is likely anxiety coming to the surface. And the deeper conversation beneath that anxiety is about control. When people feel they've lost the steering wheel — and are therefore at the mercy of decisions made by systems they can't see into and biases they can't audit — many respond by checking out entirely.

3. Misinformation and Information Overload

Misinformation is another anticipatory anxiety trigger. In 2025, 69% of adults named the spread of inaccurate or misleading information as a major source of stress, up from 62% the year before. When you don’t know if you can trust the headlines, photos, or videos in your feed, you may feel the need to always be on guard.

3. Widespread Smoke from Wildfires

Smoke drifts hundreds of miles beyond a fire's perimeter, triggering anxiety and growing fears about future wildfires. One 2024 study found that within 48 hours of wildfire smoke exposure, emergency room visits for anxiety rose across five western states, with the sharpest increases among women, girls, and older adults.

Smoke brings uncertainty that can escalate into anticipatory anxiety; you can't fully predict where it's headed, how long it will linger, or whether today's orange sky will be an even darker shade tomorrow. Unable to find answers, your brain loops on an unsettling list of what-ifs.

Signs and symptoms of anticipatory anxiety

Not everyone shows the same signs or symptoms related to anticipatory anxiety. But the ones listed below tend to come up often.

Cognitive signs

Anticipatory anxiety usually starts with repetitive thinking. People rehearse bad outcomes even when those outcomes may be very unlikely.

That can look like:

• Catastrophic thinking — This will go horribly or I won't survive it
• “What-if spiraling” — What if I say the wrong thing? What if they don't like me? What if I lose my job?
• Overestimating the threat
• Trouble concentrating

Physical signs

The stress of constant worry can manifest in physical symptoms, including:

• Muscle tension
• Headaches
• GI disturbance
• Sleep problems
• Racing heart
• Shortness of breath

Emotional signs

Emotional signs can vary from intense, negative feelings to no feelings at all. People with anticipatory anxiety may experience:

• Dread (the debilitating kind)
• Irritability
• Emotional numbness or detachment

Behavioral signs

This is where anticipatory anxiety starts interfering with real life in noticeable ways, such as:

• Avoidance
• Over-preparing
• Reassurance-seeking
• Difficulty making decisions
• Pulling away from people

Given these symptoms — which can sometimes overlap to the point where you can’t tell them apart — it’s easy to see why anticipatory anxiety is exhausting and unsustainable.

What’s happening inside your brain

Your brain is a problem-solving machine. And its favorite kind of problems are familiar ones. When you have a solid idea of what you're up against, your brain can run a logical threat-response playbook. But if you’re imagining a future filled with unknown threats, your brain doesn’t know what to do. Since it can’t go down the problem-solving track, it needs to pick another path.

Whether that path leads to anxiety, and how hard that anxiety is to soothe, depends partly on a trait called intolerance of uncertainty (IU). People who can meet the unknown with curiosity rather than dread tend to recover faster. For these folks, uncertainty has become something to learn from instead of brace against. For people high in IU, that kind of reframing doesn't come easily without support, especially when your mind and body are already under stress.

Something called “cognitive appraisal,” also comes into play. Cognitive appraisal is the story you tell yourself about what a threat means and how likely it is to happen. Some people are more likely to tell themselves the worst possible version of that story. This, in turn, contributes to a state of hypervigilance, where your brain is actively inflating danger while also underestimating your ability to cope.

Normal worry vs. clinically significant anxiety

Most people worry about the future to some degree, and with good reason. So it can be hard to figure out if what you’re feeling is just part of being human, or if it’s something worth seeing a therapist about.

These three questions can help you decide:

• How much does it bother you?
• How long has it been bothering you?
• How is it affecting your life?

Per the DSM-5-TR, generalized anxiety is marked by excessive worry occurring more days than not for at least six months, alongside three or more of the following:

• Restlessness or feeling on edge
• Becoming easily fatigued
• Difficulty concentrating or the mind going blank
• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Sleep disturbance

If you’ve been worrying frequently for months and are nodding your head at a few of the items above, speak with your doctor or a therapist. Don’t let thoughts like “I can handle it,” “it’s not that bad,” or “other people have it much worse,” stop you from taking care of yourself.

How to manage anticipatory anxiety

You are not powerless against anticipatory anxiety. There are evidence-based strategies that can help you build tolerance for an increasingly uncertain world.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT remains a gold-standard approach to any type of anxiety. CBT built around intolerance of uncertainty works the usual three levers — what you think, what you feel, what you do — while also changing your relationship with not-knowing. We can't delete the uncertainty from your life, so the goal is to change your relationship with it.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness interrupts future-oriented anxiety by drawing your attention back to the present. It supports steadier emotion regulation, eases rumination, dials down anxiety sensitivity, and builds a sustainable rhythm of self-care. Over time, mindfulness practice can soften your first-reflex reactions to anticipated threats, so uncertainty starts to register as less menacing.

Structure, Sleep, Exercise

Building more structure into your days (e.g., a consistent sleep routine, regular movement) can ease perseverative thinking. That's the looping, ruminating "what if" cycle at the heart of anticipatory anxiety, which only gets worse when you're overly tired.

Graduated Exposure to Uncertainty

You could try to stop watching the news or ignore AI altogether. Alas, avoidance is a short-term fix that tends to amplify the problem long-term. Building exposure to uncertainty in small, deliberate steps grows your tolerance over time. You make a plan without knowing every outcome, you survive it, you do it again.

Digital and App-Based Support

For people who don’t want in-person help, or who are stuck on a waitlist, app-based tools can be a reasonable bridge for working through moments of uncertainty. Consider checking out apps like: Headspace, Calm, Rootd, Virtual Hope Box, and Self-Help for Anxiety Management.

Help for an overworked nervous system

Anticipatory anxiety is a deeply human response to a world that is less predictable than it used to be, and your brain / nervous system is just doing what it evolved to do.

Unfortunately, your brain is not going to feel less anxious about the future on command. It takes time and care to become more aware of your thought processes and responses, and find a different way of viewing our often uncertain world.

If worrying about the future is interfering with your well-being, consider scheduling a consultation with a therapist. They can talk through your symptoms and help you consider the best options for feeling better.

This story was produced by Alma and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.