Feeling unsettled? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Welcome to the summer of 2021. I asked thousands of New York Times readers of all ages to share [how they’re feeling right now](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/well/pandemic-wellness-mental-health.html). The most common answers revealed the mixed feelings of the past 14 months: unsettled, anxious, overwhelmed, frazzled, tired, hopeful, optimistic, stressful, exhausted, excited. Some readers said just one word was not enough to describe how they’re feeling. “Bored, anxious, hopeful — all at once. Is there a word for that?” asked one reader. Ours was not a scientific survey — the respondents all had signed up for the [10-day Fresh Start Challenge](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/well-fresh-start-challenge), which delivered daily texts with tips for healthy living. But the answers are consistent with national survey data that shows many people are still struggling with the emotional toll of pandemic life. [The Household Pulse Survey](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/mental-health.htm), from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that as of mid-May, almost a third of Americans (30.7 percent) were experiencing symptoms of [anxiety or depression](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/well/mind/depression-anxiety-physical-health.html). While that number was down from a peak of about 42 percent in November, it’s still alarmingly high. In 2019, about 11 percent of adults in the United States had similar symptoms, according to a comparable survey from the [National Center for Health Statistics.](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/mental-health-monthly-508.pdf) Dr. Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and an associate professor of psychiatry at the medical school, said many of his patients are describing themselves as feeling overwhelmed and frazzled. The emotions are likely to stem from the general uncertainty created by pandemic life. For the brain, feelings of uncertainty are like hunger pangs to your stomach, he said. While a stomach growl is a signal you need food, feelings of uncertainty are a signal to your brain that it needs information. The problem for many people right now is a lack of information about how life looks going forward. “Information is food for our brain,” said Dr. Brewer, author of the new book “ [Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind](https://drjud.com/book/).” “But when there is continuous uncertainty that we can’t resolve, that leaves people feeling anxious. They can feel overwhelmed because there’s not a resolution; the brain is not able to solve the problem. That leaves them feeling frazzled, tired and exhausted.” “The last year,” said Dr. Brewer, “has created a huge amount of uncertainty in so many different realms.”