Be Ready, Not on Edge: Understanding Emergency Preparedness Anxiety

Last month, the government launched its "Be Ready" campaign, asking households to think about how they'd manage for three days if everyday services were disrupted. Within days, shops were reporting torches and radios flying off the shelves.

The advice itself is sensible, and worth a quiet think. But advice about "what if" lands differently depending on who's reading it. For some people it's a tick-list. For others, it's a switch that turns a vague background worry into something very loud. If you've felt a flutter of unease reading it, or found yourself thinking about it more than you expected, that isn't silly. It's what this piece is about: emergency preparedness anxiety, and how to tell preparing from living on edge.

A list with an end. Preparing is a task you can finish, and then put down.

What the guidance actually asks

The checklist suggests three days' supply of bottled water and non-perishable food, along with things like a torch, batteries and a radio [1]. It covers disruptions such as severe weather, flooding, wildfires, power cuts and interruptions to water, phone and internet, and it also mentions preparing for more serious emergencies [1]. Cyber attacks have been named alongside severe weather too [1].

The reasoning is practical: if households can manage some of their immediate needs, emergency services can focus on those who need urgent help [1].

So the everyday risks are named. What's left broad is the more serious end of things that could happen, and that vagueness is where a lot of minds start filling in the gaps.

Why emergency preparedness anxiety isn't a sign you're overreacting

Our brains are good at preparing for a danger we can see. They're much less comfortable with one we can't. Researchers describe uncertainty about a possible future threat as disrupting our ability to avoid it or lessen its impact, and that is what produces anxiety [2]. Experiments on intolerance of uncertainty have also found that people who struggle most with not knowing tend to see ambiguous situations as more threatening, and to feel worse in response [3].

A non-specific warning is a perfect example of ambiguity. It doesn't tell you what to be afraid of, so your mind may try to supply the answer, and it usually picks the worst version. That isn't weakness, and it isn't catastrophising for its own sake. It's a mind doing what minds do when there's a gap where information should be.

It can help to ask the question underneath the fear: what would actually happen if I weren't prepared? For the disruptions the guidance names most clearly, like storms, power cuts and burst pipes, the realistic answer is a few uncomfortable days, which is exactly what the advice is designed to bridge [1]. I can't promise that nothing worse could ever happen, and nobody can. But a vague "what if" and a likely "what then" are very different things, and anxiety tends to treat them as the same.

Prepared, or on edge?

Here's the question I'd gently ask: is this a task with an end, or a loop?

Preparing is finite. You make a list, pick up a few things over a few weeks, put them somewhere sensible, and know you've done it. Anxiety is rarely finite. It keeps generating new "what ifs", so no amount of supplies ever feels like enough.

Another distinction that helps is between practical worry and "what if" worry. Practical worry has an action attached ("do I have a torch?"). "What if" worry doesn't ("what if something happens and I can't cope?"). The first can be solved. The second can't, however many tins you buy.

Some signs it may be tipping from preparing into living on edge:

• Trouble sleeping, or waking with it already on your mind

• Scrolling for updates more and more, and feeling worse afterwards

• Buying or checking compulsively, with relief that never lasts

• Finding it hard to enjoy things because part of you is always scanning

If that sounds familiar, the answer is rarely more preparation. It's more often fewer inputs, a clear stopping point, and someone to talk to.

What the research says about preparing and feeling calmer

There's an encouraging thread in the research: feeling capable seems to matter at least as much as being stocked up. In a longitudinal study of people with physical disabilities, confidence in being able to prepare consistently predicted lower psychological distress, although, as the authors note, the research is correlational and can't prove cause [4]. The same study suggests that confidence can be built by practising preparedness steps, seeing others do them, and receiving encouragement [4].

How a message is framed seems to matter too. Anxiety has been linked with lower preparedness behaviour in general, which may be because thinking about threats is so uncomfortable. In one experiment comparing fear-based and empowerment-based messages about earthquake preparedness, people given the empowering version reported higher preparedness throughout, although the difference wasn't statistically significant [5].

So this isn't settled science. But it points in a sensible direction: small, achievable steps, framed as "you can do this", tend to help more than dread does.

Who this can be hardest for

Some people will find this harder than others, and it's worth saying so.

If you live with health anxiety or generalised anxiety, a message about possible disruption can land on a nervous system that's already on alert. If you have a history of trauma, being told to prepare for the worst can touch on feelings of safety that were never secure. If you're a parent, or you work with young people, there's the question of what to say to children, and short, calm and practical usually beats saying nothing or saying too much.

And if you can't afford a stockpile, the advice can feel like one more thing you're failing at. You're not. The guidance was developed with charities representing people in insecure housing and those who use food banks, and it suggests donating spare supplies to households who can't prepare [1]. Preparedness doesn't have to be a solo or a spending exercise. A neighbour who checks in on you, or someone you check in on, is part of being ready too.

Small steps, then stop

If you'd like to act, there's a gentle way to do it:

• Pick one small thing this week, not the whole list.

• Decide in advance when you'll stop. A finished list is a finished list.

• Keep news and social media updates to set times, rather than all day.

• Tell someone. Worries tend to shrink when they're said out loud.

Being prepared is meant to make life feel a little steadier, not smaller. If it's doing the opposite, that's worth taking seriously, and talking it through with your GP or a counsellor can help.

You're allowed to be a little prepared, and to get on with your life.

References

1. UK Government, Be Ready campaign - official website: https://beready.campaign.gov.uk/

2. Grupe, D. W., & Nitschke, J. B. (2013). Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(7), 488–501. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn3524

3. Chen, J., & Lovibond, P. F. (2016). Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with increased threat appraisal and negative affect under ambiguity but not uncertainty. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282589560_Intolerance_of_Uncertainty_Is_Associated_With_Increased_Threat_Appraisal_and_Negative_Affect_Under_Ambiguity_but_Not_Uncertainty

4. Perceived Threat of Disaster, Efficacy, and Psychological Distress Among Individuals with a Physical Disability: A Longitudinal Model. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health-preparedness/article/perceived-threat-of-disaster-efficacy-and-psychological-distress-among-individuals-with-a-physical-disability-a-longitudinal-model/3FD2743C923DB5296DA20B4998EAD85F

5. Study of fear-based versus empowerment-based risk communication and household earthquake preparedness (2024). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-024-00534-w