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PTSD and the Coronavirus
The other day I invited two friends over for a visit. We formed a woman’s group that usually meets monthly, but we hadn’t come together in months. All of us are seniors and they are both more cautious than I am regarding the coronavirus. So, I suggested we could sit either outside or inside (not having checked on the late morning temperature).
When they arrived, one friend (call her “E”) came to the front door and told me that my other friend (“R”) was walking around the side of the house to enter by the lanai side door. Clearly, she had decided she preferred to sit outside, in spite of the early morning Florida heat and humidity. We moved our chairs into three spots of shade we found and visited for 1.5 hours.
The entire time we spoke about nothing but the coronavirus, or topics related to it, such as scheduling doctor appointments and haircuts. In our defense, there wasn’t much more going on (unless you count the civil unrest). I realized at one point the narrow framework of the conversation; it never occurred to me to suggest we talk about the larger implications of the virus or its effects on our lives.
When it was time to part, I asked about scheduling a next meeting (which we usually did month-to-month). “R” said she wasn’t willing to meet inside a house, and it would clearly be too warm outside in August, even with our outside fans. So, we decided to check in with each other in a month or two.
Later in the day, “E” and I set up a time for me to visit her at her home.
In thinking about “R”s behavior, I felt concern and alarm for her. I could understand her wearing a mask everywhere. I also know that she has some medical conditions, although she takes very good care of herself with proper diet and exercise. Still, her fear was palpable, a woman who usually deals with life practically and rationally. I wondered if her anxiety could have long-term effects, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I decided to do a little research, and the results were disconcerting.
If you are concerned about those you love (or even yourself), here are the symptoms of PTSD:
Anger, often of an inappropriate type; depression which appears to have no basis in fact; loss of concentration; increased startle and hypervigilance; avoidance; isolation; emotional numbing; lack of trust; suicidal ideation may be present; insomnia; distressing nightmares
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs describes the potential of PTSD as an outcome of the coronavirus, makes the following recommendations:
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Consider the stressful situation in a broader context and keep a long-term perspective.
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Look for opportunities to practice being more patient or kind with yourself, or to see the situation as an opportunity to learn or build strengths.
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Celebrate successes, find things to be grateful about, and take satisfaction in completing tasks, even small ones.
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Give yourself small breaks from the stress of the situation by doing something you enjoy.
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Draw upon your spirituality, those who inspire you, or your personal beliefs and values.
These approaches make sense, especially for a person like myself who is only moderately stressed by the current virus situation. But I wonder how they would work for people who are already awash in the emotions and fears regarding the virus?
Certain issues related to the virus are difficult to deal with from a rational perspective: the fear of the unknown. One author lists some of those concerns:
How the virus is communicated
How long is the period of incubation before symptoms
What is the fatality rate
Can it be caught more than once
How long can it live on surfaces
Will quarantine be needed and for how long
Will personal finances be affected
Will the virus jeopardize our economy and will our financial institutions begin to fail
We’ve been told that some of these issues have been answered, but have they? Do we really know very much about the virus? Just today there was a question about how far droplets can travel; whether masks are helpful or not; whether children should go back to school; whether the number of cases or the death rate is more important; and the questions continue.
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Then there are the questions about whom to believe. Do we believe the “experts”? Which ones should we rely on? How certain can we be about President Trump’s guidance, when Dr. Anthony Fauci calls touting the death rate a “false narrative”?
And then there is the media, which we know will mostly promote the worst-case scenario for the virus, but is anything they tell us true? Where can we go for reliable information? Let’s not forget the other stressors beyond the coronavirus. The riots, shootings, lootings, which have been doing on for weeks, continue unabated. We see occasional periods of quiet, but we have to wonder whether the media is intentionally ignoring certain dangerous events because they don’t suit their agenda.
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We know that coronavirus may very well be with us for a while. Even when the situation appears to be improving, too many people are invested in hyping the deadliest information. I worry about my friend and those like her who are especially vulnerable and at some level sense the possibility of death.
How will she and others be affected in the long-term?
Published in Culture
I meant to salute you, as well, for your care and thoughtfulness in your commentary. Good reminder to keep perspective always and be patient.
Another friend just told me that an elderly couple have broken off their friendship with my friend and her husband. He refuses to wear masks anywhere and they argued about it. End of friendship. Take good care, FSC.
As a jaded suspicious misanthrope, I can only say that I see all of those reactions as perfectly rational in light of what is happening around us. Unfortunately.
Susan, good post. Part of me wants to be compassionate in response to these overblown fears, which I call coronaphobia. The phobia part is the excessive and irrational fear. There is legitimate cause for concern, but it seems wildly overemphasized by some people.
Coronaphobia appears similar to other bad ideological ideas, which often have political implications. I see it in overblown black fear of cops, in the rape culture claims of the feminists, and in excessive Jewish claims of anti-Semitism. There may be others that are not occurring to me at the moment. Maybe there’s an overstated fear of criminal illegal aliens on the political right.
I’m not sure if these issues are related. I don’t recall major outbreaks of irrational fear in the past. I wonder whether there is something in our culture that is making this more common.
On coronaphobia in particular, I wonder if it is related to a lack of faith. I do recall having a notable fear of death, before I became a follower of Jesus, which principally manifested itself in a fear of flying. This went away when I turned to the faith.
It’s not a good argument to persuade people to the faith. “Hey, say you believe in Jesus, and your fear will go away.” No one should want to believe something that they don’t think is true, to gain some psychological crutch. It just doesn’t work that way.
It also occurs to me that I may come across as bragging. “I’m totally fearless!” Not so, and I haven’t confronted a truly serious risk of imminent death like someone pointing a gun at me. I don’t know how I would react. I just observe that, before I became a believer, I was very afraid of flying (specifically, of turbulence, and taking off, and landing), and then that went away.
My own journey to faith involved confronting death (a child’s death, not a risk to me personally). I wonder if the fear of coronavirus will lead people in such a direction. If I had a friend or acquaintance with such concerns, I don’t think that turning the discussion toward faith would be effective or helpful in most cases. I think that it would come across as trying to use the fear in order to stampede them into my kooky (to them) religious views. I guess we just have to let the Spirit work.
Great comment, Jerry, even if we disagree about Jewish fears about anti-Semitism! ;-) You suggest an interesting premise: do those people with faith have less fear about the virus: I don’t know. My friend who is so frightened was raised in a Jewish home and very much believes in G-d but doesn’t really practice. I suspect that lots of people may not make the connection between faith and the potential of dying from the virus. It may just be that it takes extra belief or courage for people to make that leap. For some of us, it’s not a leap, but a reassuring part of the faith process. I think I’m currently suffering much more by watching others suffering, than due to my own situation, which is mostly annoying.
I had my mandatory Covid test this morning. Then had my hair cut where masks are optional in the barber shop. A week from today, I will have surgery for lung cancer. There are worse things than a virus. My wife almost died five weeks ago from probable Covid in spite of five negative tests. She had all the symptoms but has taken hydroxychloroquine for years for rheumatoid arthritis.
The lesion is small and I will probably get at least 3 years out of it. Good enough as I am 82 now. People panic for little things.
I find it hard to be sympathetic.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Sending you my best wishes and prayers, @michaelkennedy. May I put your name in to the Ricochet prayer group? It’s okay to say “no.”
My guess: Social media. It feeds our fears and allows us to exist in isolated bubbles where we don’t have to listen to and deal with those who disagree with us.
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Sure. My wife is more religious than I am but never turn down a word with the Big Guy.
Judging from the “Karen” phenomenon, a significant fraction would be in the GESTAPO.
Done. You’ll have Ricocheteers rooting for you, with the Big Guy’s help!
There’s a Ricochet prayer group? How do I find it? Do you have a link?
Susan, I almost asked in my earlier comment, and I’m going to raise it now (you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to). I’m not sure if Judaism offers the same comfort as Christianity. There’s not much of a doctrine of eternal life in the Old Testament. There is the very end of the book of Daniel, which references a final resurrection of the dead (to reward for the just and punishment for the wicked). This is the most obvious one. There are other possible references, though they’re more subject to interpretation.
I don’t actually know what Jewish believers think about the question of eternal life, or whether there is even a consensus on the point.
Technically, @flicker, it’s a Private Group, which means you need to be invited. I’ve let them know you are interested!
I know very little about it, except that I know we believe in a “World to Come”; different groups in Judaism have their own specific beliefs. But here’s a link to check it out: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/life-after-death/
Edit: Keep in mind that we are much more focused on serving G-d in this life. From my perspective, if I do that and am a good person, the rest will take care of itself!
@flicker and to anyone else who is interested in the prayer group, click on your avatar; then “All Groups”; then look for “Divine Help”; you should see a “Request Membership” or something to that effect.
I thought I posted this comment once, but here it goes again:
@flicker or anyone else interested in the prayer group, click on your avatar at the top bar of the Main Page; then click on “All Groups”; look for “Divine Help” and look for “Join Group” or something to that effect.
Thanks.
How interesting. Thanks for the link. It focused primarily on the part of Daniel that I knew about, plus a reference in Isaiah. The citation to Isaiah is less clear, and reminds me a bit about the “dry bones living again” part of Ezekiel. It’s not immediately clear, to me, whether these are referring to personal resurrection, or using symbolic language to describe the restoration of Jewish society (after the Babylonian exile, and perhaps at other times, too).
I’m not well situated to give you advice about this. If I were you, I think that I’d want to learn what the Jewish faith teaches about this, rather than believing something like “if I’m a good person then all will be well.” That may be what Jewish believers deduce from the Old Testament, but it sounds pretty close to New Age-ism, too. As a follower of Jesus, I have a different view of the point of the Old Testament.
If you get interested and look into this further, I’d like to know what you learn.
I’m not particularly interested in pursuing that teaching. My comment was a little cryptic, but at the same time, I don’t need a detailed description of what happens after death. I am pretty busy and fulfilled in my Jewish practice, and I trust G-d to accept my practice, just as it is. But if it matters to you, I’m sure you will check it out. Thanks.
I can invite. On my way.
EDIT: I can only invite friends. Sending that first.
You’re good, Susan.
Thanks, @percival. A lot of people put a lot of weight on being deeply knowledgeable about their faiths, Christian and Jew. And I am regularly studying. But I feel as if I have a blessed relationship with Hashem, and from what other Jews have told me, He loves anything I do to serve Him. I trust that teaching.
I have listened to dozens of Dennis Prager’s speeches and everything else he does. I have never, ever gotten the impression from him that there was any controversy about an afterlife in Judaism. I think the difference is, Jews and Judaism focuses on improving the now, so they never rhetorically make a big deal about the afterlife.
I know symbolically in Judaism, when someone dies, the rabbi spend hardly any time with the family. This is done on purpose because the emphasis is on improving the now. Everybody knows what’s going on. It’s just different priorities.
Maybe the way to think about it is the two groups will have different approaches to in-the-moment and on going peace / mental health during this crisis.
I have two comments. I may add to this later.
I think something you have to get used to is, a pandemic is some thing that requires that the government very heavily prepare for and then they have to central plan it like crazy. 43 made a great big deal about this in 2005 and they came up with their plans in 2006. Nobody did jack about it. They had to have astronomy numbers level of PPE and they knew it back then and nobody did jack. I think the public health experts are all phonies. If anybody got ready and was serious, it was negated by the bad ones. There was utterly no financial plan to shut the whole country down as we needed. Zip. Then it gets politicized. That is just where we are.
The other thing is, the situation requires ongoing, intelligent central planning. You just can’t do this here like you can in a European country. Consider yourself lucky if you live in a state that has sensible political leader ship and sensible public health officials. Something that has really gotten my attention lately is they just don’t have controlled data reporting like they need in this country. The problem is both controls and incentives. Even if everyone knew what they were doing that would set you back a ton. I haven’t fully digested this article but they talk about it here
https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/05/covid-19-did-not-cure-pneumonia/
You need to accept these things.
The other thing I’d recommend is go onto YouTube and look up Med Circle. You can sample what they do there on YouTube. It’s proprietary, but it costs less than a therapy appointment and they have good information about mental health issues. I have just started using it but I’ve been pretty impressed with Dr. Ramani in general and some of their other videos.