Dr. Jud on NPR: Coronavirus Panic: How To Get Your Thinking Brain Back Online

Overview

In this episode of NPR’s Life Kit, host Shereen Marisol Meraji talks with Dr. Jud Brewer about the neuroscience behind pandemic-era panic behaviors — toilet paper hoarding, obsessive cleaning, and compulsive news consumption. Dr. Jud explains that these aren’t irrational responses; they’re the brain’s habit loops running on overdrive in response to extreme uncertainty.

When the brain senses a threat it can’t control, the older, survival-oriented regions take over and push the prefrontal cortex — the “thinking brain” — offline. This is useful if you’re running from a predator, but it’s counterproductive during a slow-moving crisis like a pandemic. The result is a cascade of behaviors that feel productive in the moment (buying more toilet paper, refreshing the news feed, wiping down every surface) but don’t actually address the underlying threat. These are anxiety habit loops — the brain seeking a sense of control through repetitive action.

Dr. Jud offers a practical insight that may seem counterintuitive: sometimes not doing anything is the most helpful response. When you notice yourself spinning out, the first step is simply recognizing that your brain is trying to gain control where there isn’t any. From there, small calming actions — a deep breath, a hug, a walk outside — can help bring the prefrontal cortex back online. And panic, as Dr. Jud points out, can be as contagious as a virus: when you calm yourself down, you help calm the people around you too.

Key Takeaways

• Panic is contagious: Anxiety spreads socially, and panic behaviors in one person trigger panic in others — making individual calm a public service.
• Hoarding, cleaning, and news bingeing are anxiety habits: These behaviors follow the trigger-behavior-reward loop, with a false sense of control as the reward.
• The survival brain overrides the thinking brain: Under threat, the prefrontal cortex goes offline and older brain regions take over, producing impulsive rather than rational behavior.
• Doing nothing can be the best action: Recognizing that your brain is seeking control — and choosing to pause rather than react — helps bring rational thought back online.

Toilet paper hoarding. Obsessive cleaning. News bingeing. Sometimes panic can be as contagious as a virus. Life Kit host Shereen Marisol Meraji spoke with Dr. Jud about what’s going on in the brain when we’re anxious, how to get our “thinking brains” back online, and how not doing anything can actually be helpful to those around us.

Listen to the podcast on NPR here.

Related Resources

• The Anxiety Habit Loop — How anxiety follows the same brain mechanism as any habit
• What Is the Habit Loop? — The trigger-behavior-reward cycle driving panic behaviors
• Curiosity Is a Superpower — Using curiosity to interrupt anxiety instead of fighting it
• A Simple Way to Break Bad Habits — Dr. Jud’s TED Talk on awareness-based change
• Mindfulness Exercises — Guided practices for calming the survival brain