YOUR COVID-19 QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The Citizen has asked a group of medical and research experts to answer reader questions about COVID-19. Here’s today’s query, on parental anxiety (we’ll try to answer other questions as we receive them).

Q: I confess; I’m feeling more and more anxious about COVID-19, but I don’t want my kids to feel like I do. Help?

A: (Courtesy of Dr. Gail Beck, a child psychiatrist and Clinical Director of Youth Mental Health at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.):

Many of us, including parents, are very anxious about COVID-19 and that’s only natural. Scenarios from around the world, and even locally, are frightening.

An important thing to remember about our COVID-19 anxiety is that it is justified. If our children are anxious, it means that they have correctly heard the messaging they need to hear. If children are worried about their parents’ and other adults’ anxiety in relation to COVID-19, it is my view that adults should acknowledge that the anxiety is natural AND reasonable. COVID-19 is a dangerous disease and it has the potential to cause serious illness and even death. We should all feel anxious.

But it is important to remember, and to remind everyone including children and youth, that there are things we can all do to make sure that this illness doesn’t spread. The best way to alleviate the anxiety is to do everything we can to prevent and slow down the spread. There is evidence that, in countries such as South Korea and Taiwan where people did stay at home and did take the precautions our public health officials have recommended, COVID-19 did not overwhelm the medical system. Canadians can do this too.

In our anxiety, we must resolutely follow the advice we are given. As parents, we should model staying at home. We should remind children of all ages how necessary this is. We should model washing our own hands often and keeping a physical distance. We should model self-care: resting, getting exercise while physical distancing, and eating healthy meals.

The anxiety caused by COVID-19 is not anxiety that can or should be minimized. It is the same anxiety we feel when we see a child running toward the street. At these times, as adults, we certainly do show our anxiety — but we also act to prevent the negative outcome by doing everything we can. In this very difficult time, we must do the things we can to reduce our stress but we must also do everything to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.