Artificial intelligence has arrived in the workplace and it has brought with it a deep sense of uncertainty. For many, AI anxiety isn’t abstract. A recent KPMG survey found that fears about job displacement doubled over the last year alone.

This anxiety is landing on an already overwhelmed workforce. Large-scale surveys consistently show elevated rates of chronic stress and burnout. Add in the pressures of a turbulent economy, persistent inflation concerns. And near-daily news of mass layoffs has many workers operating near their psychological limits.

AI didn’t create workplace stress, but it is intensifying it. And for many people, the added dread is pushing stress beyond the level that can be managed productively. When stress crosses a certain intensity threshold, we begin to mismanage it, and without realizing it, make it worse.

Instead of managing these psychological pressures thoughtfully, we allow our automatic coping mechanisms to take over, and gravitate toward strategies that offer short-term emotional relief—quick distractions that dull discomfort in the moment but ultimately make stress worse. The more overwhelmed we feel, the more we mismanage the stress, and a vicious cycle forms.

Our go-to source for distraction is our phones/screens, and via them—media. Anxiety spikes, our default coping mechanisms........

© Newsweek