 This time is clearly unprecedented and it has left many of us parents feeling overwhelmed with how to manage our stress, as well as our children's stress. With the governor's recent direction to keep schools closed throughout the rest of the 2019-2020 school year, we are collectively unsure of how to proceed. As a mother to an eight year old, four year old, and two year old, I am certainly overwhelmed with balancing motherhood, being a business owner and clinician, as well as a second grade substitute teacher. I have put off preschool teacher until the fall, I know we all hope it doesn't come to that. As a Registered Play Therapist, I am fortunate to be a part of a very unique and special group of clinicians that share my love for the therapeutic power of play. We are a friendly and helpful bunch by nature, I have been overcome with gratefulness and admiration at how Play Therapists have come to support one another with many wonderful resources. I have included some below that you may find useful navigating these unchartered waters. Fee free to review them and choose which ones may help you and your family. I will do my best to organize them in a cohesive way, and I will continue to add to the list as more come to my attention. I think as parents a helpful thing to consider as we manage the stressors of our time is to do our best to fill this time with happy memories. Memories that our grown children can look back on and say, "Hey, remember when". Remember when we didn't have to go to school, remember when we build a fort and did schoolwork in it, remember when we stayed up late and had popcorn for dinner... Clearly, not everyday can or should be a remember when day, but let's ease our mistakes and personal standards to have some fun amidst the chaos.
Coloring Books, Elementary Age: Caroline Conquers Her Corona Fears Caroline Continues To Conquer (Follow Up) Story Book, Early Childhood and Families Trinka and Sam Fighting the Big Virus Trinka and Sam: Complimentary Activities To Accompany Book Story Book, Elementary Age: The Germ Called Coronavirus PDF Downloads: A COVID Time Capsule |
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| COVID Time Capsule.pdf |
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With the constant news cycle and unprecedented societal shutdowns from the NBA, to Disney World, March Madness, and even mandatory statewide school closures, it's a shocking time for our country and one that understandably is generating a lot of anxiety. In my clinical training there has been one aspect of anxiety that has always stood out to me, the notion of "normal anxiety". I think this is important to recognize because some anxiety is normal, even helpful. Anxiety can let us know something is wrong and lead us to take important protective measures. With the arrival of coronavirus, this is clearly a time in which "normal anxiety" would take a strong role. Having no anxiety at all, at times like this, may be an indicator of a problem and could even have a negative impact on public health and safety. However, there is a fine line between healthy, normal anxiety and anxiety that begins to thwart important functioning in our lives.
On my current home page, I have posted a link to information from the CDC on coping with anxiety, so please refer to this. However, this blog is also intended to offer some ideas that I find helpful when working with clients with anxiety. I have what I call a cheat sheet I provide clients to reference when anxiety strikes. Unfortunately, the only citation is a copyright sign and "AnxietyBC" at the bottom of the document. I will use a few of these principles as a guide and then elaborate.
1. Ask yourself if you are overestimating danger, or, as Lucinda Basset calls it "awfulizing".
Anxiety starts out as one thought. One. This can be hard for people to recognize. It begins here, small, in one initial thought. But then we invite it in, like a puppy we acknowledge it, we feed it, we give it a lot of attention. We nurture it. And it begins to grow. If we catch it early enough, we can begin to dialogue with it and alter the course of the conversation, and thus its development and hold in our lives. Anxiety turns into worse case scenarios. Anxiety often becomes bigger than the reality of the fear itself. In session I find it helpful to imagine that the fear actually comes true. Usually the reality of the consequences from the fear occurring are far more tolerable than anxiety builds it up to be. Which leads us to the next point.
2. What is the evidence that the fear is true? What is the evidence that it is not true?
If we take the coronavirus, understandably the ultimate fear is death. "I can't get the virus because I will die." This is an understandable fear. As of the date of writing this the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting nearly 5,000 deaths globally from about 134,000 infected people. However, statistically this is a death rate of 3.7%. Rounded up this means about one person in twenty-five do die from the disease, based on current data. Although indeed alarming, the odds of death are fairly low, particularly for healthy, younger adults. The coronavirus makes some anxiety debating more challenging, as the fears aren't irrational but warrant concern. However, many people recover from the illness, news sources are even reporting that some infected don't even experience symptoms. I also don't want to downplay risk and I want to state clearly to use caution and follow all government recommendations to minimize risk to others. This paragraph is simply being stated to work through heightened anxiety. Taking precautions, such as frequent hand washing and avoiding crowds are a few of the important steps you can take, and have control over, to help minimize exposure.
3. Is this a possibility or a certainty?
Is it possible we can contract coronavirus? Sure. Is it certain? No, not at all. If we take careful measures, we can help to greatly minimize our risk, and thus the risk to others in the community who are in groups that have a risk of serious illness. (Again, there are risks to not having any anxiety at all, as these folks may not take enough steps to protect themselves, and thus others from infection.) Most of us however fall in the low to moderate risk category, and make up the 96.3% of people who will survive IF we were to contract the virus. (Click here for a bar graph on a break down of age groups and coronavirus).
In summary, be diligent, follow government recommendations, but mostly breathe and read the data in moderation, because knowledge is power.
On my current home page, I have posted a link to information from the CDC on coping with anxiety, so please refer to this. However, this blog is also intended to offer some ideas that I find helpful when working with clients with anxiety. I have what I call a cheat sheet I provide clients to reference when anxiety strikes. Unfortunately, the only citation is a copyright sign and "AnxietyBC" at the bottom of the document. I will use a few of these principles as a guide and then elaborate.
1. Ask yourself if you are overestimating danger, or, as Lucinda Basset calls it "awfulizing".
Anxiety starts out as one thought. One. This can be hard for people to recognize. It begins here, small, in one initial thought. But then we invite it in, like a puppy we acknowledge it, we feed it, we give it a lot of attention. We nurture it. And it begins to grow. If we catch it early enough, we can begin to dialogue with it and alter the course of the conversation, and thus its development and hold in our lives. Anxiety turns into worse case scenarios. Anxiety often becomes bigger than the reality of the fear itself. In session I find it helpful to imagine that the fear actually comes true. Usually the reality of the consequences from the fear occurring are far more tolerable than anxiety builds it up to be. Which leads us to the next point.
2. What is the evidence that the fear is true? What is the evidence that it is not true?
If we take the coronavirus, understandably the ultimate fear is death. "I can't get the virus because I will die." This is an understandable fear. As of the date of writing this the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting nearly 5,000 deaths globally from about 134,000 infected people. However, statistically this is a death rate of 3.7%. Rounded up this means about one person in twenty-five do die from the disease, based on current data. Although indeed alarming, the odds of death are fairly low, particularly for healthy, younger adults. The coronavirus makes some anxiety debating more challenging, as the fears aren't irrational but warrant concern. However, many people recover from the illness, news sources are even reporting that some infected don't even experience symptoms. I also don't want to downplay risk and I want to state clearly to use caution and follow all government recommendations to minimize risk to others. This paragraph is simply being stated to work through heightened anxiety. Taking precautions, such as frequent hand washing and avoiding crowds are a few of the important steps you can take, and have control over, to help minimize exposure.
3. Is this a possibility or a certainty?
Is it possible we can contract coronavirus? Sure. Is it certain? No, not at all. If we take careful measures, we can help to greatly minimize our risk, and thus the risk to others in the community who are in groups that have a risk of serious illness. (Again, there are risks to not having any anxiety at all, as these folks may not take enough steps to protect themselves, and thus others from infection.) Most of us however fall in the low to moderate risk category, and make up the 96.3% of people who will survive IF we were to contract the virus. (Click here for a bar graph on a break down of age groups and coronavirus).
In summary, be diligent, follow government recommendations, but mostly breathe and read the data in moderation, because knowledge is power.
Author
Jordan Prebys, MA, LPCC, RPT, SP, CHT is a counselor in Springfield, OH.
Her unique style of therapy strives to integrate the mind, body, spirit and emotions, through her work using creative treatment modalities.
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Kent Wang, MariaaaR, NurseTogether
