March 2020

By Brittaini Howard, Daily Herald, March 15, 2020 Coronavirus talk is rampant on the school playground, and many children are returning home frightened. Events like the Coronavirus pandemic provide a sobering opportunity for parents to reevaluate how they help their children cope with trauma. Traumatic events are those that are threatening to a child’s safety and can be scary, dangerous, or violent in nature. These may include physical abuse, emotional abuse, natural disasters, loss of a...

By Adam Phelan, UNSW Newsroom, March 16, 2020 When Dr Eades’ sister fell ill, she knew she needed to do something. As a proud Noongar woman from Western Australia, a registered nurse, and a health researcher, she saw there was a missing piece of the puzzle in Aboriginal women’s health research. Dr Eades, a UNSW Scientia Fellow, became determined to examine a reality that was often left untold. “I had seen it in my own life, of how Aboriginal women often pick up the pieces for society,” she...

By Wendy L. Patrick, Psychology Today, March 13, 2020 Pandemic panic is nothing new. But depending on who you are and what your life experiences have entailed, it might be new to you. It is helpful to realize you are not alone if you are experiencing feelings of helplessness or even hopelessness as you watch news coverage of the increasing spread of illness or disease. But thankfully, there are ways to achieve and sustain positivity amidst the panic. One of the most important things you can...

Trauma, defined by either witnessing or experiencing a life-threatening event or sexual violation, is common among adolescents. Complex trauma often begins early in life, and involves the relationship of the caregivers (Clark et al., 2015). Traumatic stress can be triggered by neglect, community violence, natural disasters, loss and/or grief, interpersonal violence, or accidents . Studies suggest that 60–70% of have experienced at least one traumatic event (Copeland et al., 2007). These...

Luckily, some state governments are instituting strict restrictions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked people over the age of 65 and people with chronic conditions to isolate themselves at home to reduce the risk of becoming infected, asked bars, wineries, night clubs and brew pubs to close, and called for restaurants to reduce their occupancy by half. Similar restrictions have been put into place in Ohio, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

By Jen Doll, The New York Times, December 21, 2017 ( From a few years ago, but has helpful information -RM) Earlier this year, I suffered my first major panic attack. For days afterward, my heart would race and my mind would fill with doomsday visions as I worried about everything around me, including whether I’d have more panic attacks and if I’d ever be able to stop them. Knowing that it wasn’t just me, however, was strangely reassuring. “Anxiety disorders are the most common condition in...

By Dionne Searcey, The New York Times, March 13, 2020 The six young women set down their bombs and stood around the well, staring into the dark void. As captives of Boko Haram, one of the deadliest terror groups on earth, the women had been dispatched for the grimmest of missions: go blow up a mosque and everyone inside. The women wanted to get rid of their bombs without killing anyone, including themselves. One of them, Balaraba Mohammed, then a 19-year-old who had been blindfolded and...

By Kristen Monaco, MedPage Today, March 12, 2020 Suicidality is by no means rare among elementary school children, according to a new study. Among nearly 8,000 U.S. children ages 9 to 10 participating in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, 8.4% reported instances of past or current suicidal ideation, Delfina Janiri, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues reported in The Lancet Psychiatry. About 1% of these children...

By Maggie Mulqueen, NBC News, March 5, 2020 One of my patients, a nurse, walked into her therapy session on Monday and implored me to “get these people out of my emergency room.” She was clearly worn out from the increased volume of individuals visiting the hospital out of fear they have the coronavirus, and worried that overall patient care would suffer as a result. “Can’t you do something about all these anxious people?” Her question was a joke, but her point was spot on. At this moment,...

As we face the upcoming transition as a Nation is an understatement. However, one thing for certain is everyone has concerns about the impacts (COVID-19) will have on their daily life. In the midst of uncertainty, a few key factors that can greatly affect your state of mind is how you emotionally prepare as an individual. Oftentimes, when situations occur that are traumatic it's important to remember to implement coping skills to combat the stress you may feel at the moment. For instance,...

Costco is out of toilet paper and CVS is out of cough syrup. Your group fitness class and your favorite restaurant are closed. Your cousin keeps posting memes on instagram about some conspiracy theory and your co-worker brags on about how she hasn’t been sick in years so she’s not worried about germs. This is not a nightmare. This is real life in 2020 thanks to COVID-19, aka the coronavirus.

By Erin Digitale, Stanford Children's Health, March 10, 2020 As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread, experts at Stanford Children’s Health have advice about how families can prepare their children for the continued news coverage and conversations around the outbreak. Parents and caregivers should communicate in an age-appropriate way that addresses children’s questions without stoking anxiety, says Stanford Children’s Health psychiatrist Victor Carrion, MD , who also directs...