At the root of the Panician phenomenon is waiting for/seeking out "permission" to catastrophize, despair, etc. People must internalize that these behaviors are never productive in any situation

It is remarkable how many older people fall into these traps

Another aspect of the never-ending hysteria you see online is the “sunk cost” that comes from emotionally investing yourself in a position that later proves to be incorrect. Rather than admitting that they were wrong (potentially damaging ones’ self-image), people tend to just look for new situations that prove they were actually right over the long ter…