How Coronavirus News Coverage Can Activate PTSD

As the world struggles with the global coronavirus pandemic, we are learning how to deal with the “new normal.” Health care workers are going without breaks or days off. Families are coping with layoffs and have been thrown into homeschooling their children. The majority of us are under stay-at-home orders. The outcome of such undue psychological stress creates anxiety and can trigger symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Watching the constant news coverage of the outbreak doesn’t help.

PTSD In Breast Cancer Survivors

Although it is best known for affecting war veterans or those who have been through violent events, PTSD is also common in cancer survivors. Learn about risk factors and treatments for PTSD after cancer.

What is Trauma

In general, trauma can be defined as a psychological, emotional response to an event or an experience that is deeply distressing or disturbing. When loosely applied, this trauma definition can refer to something upsetting, such as being involved in an accident, having an illness or injury, losing a loved one, or going through a divorce. However, it can also encompass the far extreme and include experiences that are severely damaging, such as rape or torture.

Media-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Veterans of the Vietnam war have sadly raised our awareness of the existence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a chronic, sometimes lifelong condition resulting in pathological changes in mood, thinking and behavior. It can be incapacitating and lead to job loss, family turmoil and dissolution, poor quality of life and often suicide.

EMDR Therapy Helps Trauma Recovery

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a fairly new therapy that helps specifically in the treatment of trauma recovery and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a disorder that often develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal – one in which intense physical harm occurred or was threatened. PTSD can also result after someone has witnessed an event that is disturbing, distressing, or dangerous. Sufferers of this disorder have persistent, frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal.