Tips to Minimize the Traumatic Effects of Coronavirus

By Michelle Woodward, LPC

In the recent months, we’ve had to face unexpected changes and hardship of a pandemic and there is no doubt that we are in the beginning stages of a huge mental health crisis involving psychological trauma. COVID-19 will leave a large percentage of our population traumatized and not knowing where to get the help they need. I recently watched a video by Bessel Van der Kolk, leading expert in trauma and author of The Body Keeps Score.  In the video he discusses Psychological Trauma in the Age of Coronavirus. I've highlighted six points from the video on how we can minimize the impact of this trauma on ourselves throughout (and after) quarantine.  Though the video was created specifically with Coronavirus in mind many of the points can be applied to all traumas.

So, what sets people up for trauma and what can we do about it? See these helpful tips below:

• Lack of Predictability -- It’s human nature to want to organize our lives in predictable a way.  We do this by making schedules, setting up the order of the day and living a life where we can plan and predict.  Van der Kolk suggests continuing this habit even in quarantine.
  • The day starts and ends with your bed! Try to wake at the same time, daily, even if you don’t have a job or plans. This is the same for bedtime. Try to maintain consistency for the day. Arrange the day with specific activity times: Exercise class 9am every day, 12:30 make lunch, 3pm go for a walk and talk to a friend, 5pm watch TV show, 7pm dinner and 10pm bedtime. Plan your day and plan your week to overcome unpredictability. 
  • He discusses the importance of planning out into the future as well-weekly zoom times through June, set a hike for next Sunday, plan the drive by birthday parade for your best friend in 3 weeks.  
    
  • Create a schedule of putting yourself in a time frame where you can look forward to contact and activities. Make it concrete and easy to follow by making a calendar of connections and activities and writing it down on a calendar or piece of paper and share with others.
    

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• Immobility -- This is the paralyzed feeling that many of us experienced early on when we told to quarantine.  Van der Kolk discusses the importance of still doing things with our body even though we are locked up. He says, “When you’re traumatized you lose your physical sense of agency and become immobile”. In non-quarantine life, many times a day, our fight or flight instinct is activated. We can still activate this even in quarantine. 
  • Get moving, activate your fight or flight reaction for yourself. Not forcing this for ourselves puts us at greater risk of having altercations or angry outbursts with those around us. He highlights that our stress hormones don’t go away when we are immobile.  “We still have an innate need to move, protect, and take care of ourselves physically”.  
  • In quarantine, we need to use our bodies to use those stress hormones in healthier ways-cooking meals, doing yoga, meditation, mindfulness or deep breathing, building things in the house, outside yard work like shoveling or raking. 

 

• Loss of Connection -- “Trauma always involves a sense of not being seen, not being paid attention to and not being heard”.  
  • During quarantine, it’s important to be in touch with people, make regular contact with family, friends and colleagues. He says, “We are collective creatures, we don’t exist as individuals. To be separated and locked up alone is not in our human nature. Normalcy is to be intensely engaged with each other- touch, talk, share, laugh, make love.” Creating connections, even through virtual means is critical for our future well-being. Visually seeing others and if we can, holding others we love, will release the endorphins we need to keep from getting depressed and anxious. 
  • He says, “When we cry, we are supposed to get a response, when we laugh somebody is supposed to laugh with us.  Those are the rhythms of life with which we develop and sustain ourselves.” Suggestions on how to prevent this loss of connection is having family meals, playing board games, reading or telling stories and playing/music making.  All of these things can be done in person or virtually with others if you are quarantining alone.

 

• Numbing Out and Spacing Out -- It is easy when feeling overwhelmed by terrible things to be overcome with a sense of helplessness and to numb yourself with drugs, alcohol, isolation, or zoning out with TV or video games. Van der Kolk talks about how critical it is to not dissociate and disengage from your physical body during this time. 
  • Find a way to restore your mind and body in order to be in sync with others. Do not lose your sense of agency or your sense of purpose; who you are as a person. Notice what makes you feel alive and healthy and when you start spacing out and numbing.  For example, “when I watch the news, I start to feel nervous, anxious and sad but when I’m cooking with my family, I feel happy and hopeful.” Do more of what instills happiness and hopefulness and less of the other stuff! 
  • You also need to learn to tolerate the angry parts. Let yourself feel the hard emotions but manage them in an appropriate way. For example, take 10 minutes each day to journal about all the scary and anxious feelings you have. But then put it away and move on to positive things. 

 

• Loss of Sense of Time and of Sequence -- Undeniably one of the hardest parts of this pandemic is the trauma of feeling like this will last forever and that there’s no clear end in sight.
  • Van der Kolk suggests meditation where you can notice all the uncomfortable sensations, thoughts and tense areas in your body and mind and then release them through staged breathing or muscle relaxation exercises. 
  • He goes on to suggest that living in the moment will help you get through each day.  Start each day with the new information at hand and know that each day brings a change from the day before--the temperature outside will vary, the amount of sleep we got the night before impacts our mood, whether we have E-learing to complete with our children that day or if a trip to the grocery store is needed that day. Many of these things we do not have control over.  Let go of that which we cannot control and focus on the things we can!

 

• Safety -- The last precondition of trauma that he discusses is our need to feel safe. This one is hard because we aren’t necessarily safe in the larger world. However, we can create safe situations for ourselves by staying 6 feet apart, wearing masks, washing our hands and checking on our loved ones daily. 
  • He goes on to discuss the elements that we need to feel safe, touch being the most important. For example, you may find your children needing more frequent hugs or snuggling at night.  This touch reaffirms their sense of safety. If we are alone it is more difficult, but we can still wrap ourselves in a hug, or rub our own arms and legs to establish that internal sense of feeling safe through touch. 
  • Privacy is another element of safety that is difficult if you’re living in a small space with many people, but everyone needs a space where they can withdraw for a short time.  Simply, this can be a kitchen chair in the corner, a closet area or the bathroom. Let others know that when you’re in those spaces, “I need space privately. You cannot talk to me or bug me.  Here’s my schedule for space when I need it.” 

How each of us comes out of this pandemic in the end is going to rely heavily on our own perception of the traumatic events that we are each faced with, our own personal perception and resiliency to traumatic events and the behaviors and manner in which we choose to deal with and move on from (or otherwise stay stuck in) the trauma. Take note of these six pre conditions for trauma during quarantine so that you can recognize if you’re still experiencing them after. If you can identify the preconditions that resonate with you, the better able you are to prevent further trauma from occurring. The most important thing is that we rely on each other, be kind to each other and realize that it’s OK for your solution and journey to be different than mine, even though we are both dealing with the same facts along the way. And never be afraid to ask for help and talk about it. At MMFT, we are here for you!  

Watch full video here. https://catalog.pesi.com/squeezeunautheticatedlink/QlVrUllKOEpNN1k9