Anxiety is Just a Longer Word for "Fear"

People weigh risk all of the time but I think we forgot to do that with a sense of logic when it comes to the pandemic. 

Ontario just closed schools until January 21st, 2022. This means that I won a lot of bets, but the win is bitter sweet. 

Imagine the stress and psychological toll that watching case counts, deaths and hospitalizations everyday for 2 years can have on a population. Yeah, the brain so unbelievably plastic that of course that changes neurochemistry and our perception of the world, ourselves and of risk. 

So here's an obvious statement: We could stop all deaths from car accidents today if we really wanted to. Thousands of people die every year from car accidents but we get into our metal cube on wheels and gooooooo because we feel such a sense of control behind the wheel. 

So how do we end all car accident deaths forever? Change the speed limit from 100km/h on the highway to 5km/h. We would still get to where we're going but it would just take a lot longer but we would all be safe! We would be safe!

Yeah obviously stupid, but you see the point. I think I borrowed this idea from Sam Harris  - heard his podcast or an interview, I forget. 

We think that its worth the chance of dying in a car if I get to go 100km/h on the highway to reach my destination in 30 minutes rather than 9 hours. We weigh the cost and benefit and here we are experiencing the miracle of combustion and movement.

So we close schools with the illogical fear and unhealthy risk assessment of the cost of children getting sick versus the benefit of in-person learning, social and emotional health of the family and the physiological benefits of children feeling like they belong in a community.

Fear is just a shorter word for anxiety.

Canada is in a state of fear and have been for the past 2 years. It's really tragic to see division in the city of Toronto, businesses being shut down, people losing their livelihoods because of more restrictions. 

Gyms are also closed while our beer stories and liqour stores stay open. Malls stay open but schools close. I don't know maaaaaaan, hows your country doing? 

Personally, I was getting into the groove of bringing my body back to life through saunas everyday and yoga in the evenings. 

"Scott you're a friggin' first world problem white privilege ass!"

I wrote that rebuttal myself and don't even want to respond to it, lmfao. I just know peoples needs of being social, exercising and forming in-person communities are being neglected again. This has such huge mental and emotional health implications for children and adults but let's just end the post here. 

We all need to assess risk and reward, cost and benefit (just like in microeconomics in first year university!) Omg, I finished with a 42% in that class since I was in some deep and dirty depression. I remember the final exam was worth 70% of our grade and it was all multiple choice. I looked at it for a minute and had no idea what to do. So I randomly filled in the scantron. A,D,E,A,A,E. Yeah, I got a 48% on the exam - not bad considering the random technique. 

Now, 3 years later I took the class again and scored a 90% on the final. Things just made sense without me even studying. It wasn't only that depression lifted at that time but sometimes things just click as we get older and mature. 

I hope our government and policy makers mature a little for future pandemics and the public has a better sense of risk. Also, just an idea. Since the past two years the city of Toronto has lacked services, been closed for months at a time and more expensive. 

So with that being said, can I get a reduction on my income tax this year? Like cmon, I'm paying 40% tax here for services that were closed all year. Can't you at least cover one of my dentist appointments or physiotherapy treatments? Even mail me a nice letter that says "Sorry buddy." Anything!!

Thanks for reading. 

Scott