Stress, Anxiety and The 

Coronavirus

We are afraid, we are confused, we are overwhelmed.  It is important to recognize and move toward acceptance of the emotional states which are our current experience with the pandemic called COVID 19 or Coronavirus.  In addition to my clinical practice as a psychotherapist , along with my wife, I own/operate a clothing consignment store.  On Thursday, 03/12/20, arguably the first day that Americans en masse began to recognize the health threat, I sat in our clothing store.   The strip mall where we are located was uncharacteristically empty.  People were staying home.  One store was doing well with a line of customers spilling out into the parking lot, the marijuana dispensary.  It doesn’t take a PhD to figure the connection between fear and the hope for drug induced euphoria.  I have had the opportunity to work over the past 40 years with traumatic events to include; the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s, 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing and now the Coronavirus.  If you experience your level of anxiety rising and believe, as I do, that it is helpful to explore, discuss, and find relief in healthy practices, please contact me or another mental health professional.  The experience is made more difficult by emotional isolation and denial.