COVID-19 Challenges the Psyche of a Fractured Nation

COVID-19 Challenges the Psyche of a Fractured Nation

On top of mixed messaging from various levels of government that contributes to distress, “the event is really unprecedented in the level of secondary stressors that we are seeing people experience,” says Dana Rose Garfin, [an assistant, adjunct professor and] psychologist at University of California—Irvine, who studies trauma and community disasters. … While every range of reaction – from panic to calm to feeling down or depressed – is normal, the underlying issue most people are dealing with now is uncertainty, Garfin says. …  “The more people can feel prepared and the more people can try to do the things they do have control over, the calmer they’ll be.”