Professor and psychologist at Santa Clara University offers tips for dealing with anxiety, stress amid pandemic.
Psychologist offers tips on dealing with anxiety and stress during the pandemic
Week after week, the coronavirus lockdown has caused growing stress and anxiety as social connections and routines are broken and rearranged. Santa Clara University psychology professor Thomas Plante has been a close observer of the psychological burdens mounting on the community: Distracted students, struggling patients and others interrupting therapy to shelter in place and hoping things don’t get worse. Plante has a small private practice in addition to his university and research responsibilities. Plante and his wife, Lori, also a psychologist, have been treating patients remotely. It’s been a challenge. He recommends several coping mechanisms, including exercise, putting the crisis in context and finding time to reengage with family and supportive communities. Plante finds the phrase, “We’re all in this together” troubling with the great disparities in wealth between Silicon Valley communities. The virus has hit poor and vulnerable communities harder than others. “If you’re human, then you’re sacred,” he said. “If they’re sacred, they should have food to eat, they should have a place to stay.” This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
QHave the pandemic restrictions affected different age groups in different ways, especially children?
ASome of these kids are doing perfectly fine. In fact, they’re happier because they’re not dealing with the difficult social tensions at school and they’re not dealing with some of the intensity of preparing for the SATS. They feel like there’s a lot of pressure off. They like not having to deal with all the social challenges of contemporary high school. And then, of course, there are some who are completely freaking out, very upset and they want to be with their friends.
QThis is a time of loss: Our routines, celebrations, jobs, the deaths of family members or friends. What are some of the coping mechanisms?
A(All of us) are probably going to be struggling with a certain degree of loss — a loss of a way of life.
There’s no easy simple answer, because some people have more complicated bereavement than others. Some people are more vulnerable than others. There’s never magic. But if we take a deep breath and we say to ourselves, “You know, there was life before 2020. There’s going to be life after 2020. It’s gonna be a different life — sort of like before-and-after the Spanish Flu, before-and-after the Vietnam War, before-and-after World War II and beforeand-after 9/11.” We have to take a deep breath and say goodbye to pre-2020 life and hello to post-2020 life. I’m fond of saying that at the end of the day, if you’re healthy, you’re safe and you’re sane and you have a good dinner, it’s a good day.
QWhat role does the faith community play in guiding us through?
APeople participate in religious engagement for a variety of reasons. One of which is practical support — the faith community has ways to manage soup kitchens and food pantries. Things that help those in need. There’s also this spiritual, pastoral support. People are really suffering because they either have the disease, they’re loved one has the disease and is not doing well or maybe passed away, or that they are losing their job. The spiritual traditions offer consolation. They offer solace. They offer ways of putting it in perspective. People are trying to make some sense out of the crisis. And sometimes it’s really helpful to have spiritual faith to help.