The collective trauma brought about by COVID-19 will likely have long-lasting impacts on our minds and bodies.
stresses that trauma isn’t a thing of the past; it’s a living experience we grapple with in daily life. Therefore, the “collective trauma” brought about by the pandemic is likely to have a long-lasting impact.One of the earliest researchers in the field of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, van der Kolk focuses on the ways the body holds trauma and the ways people experiencing PTSD can reconnect with their bodies to help heal it.
Yet trauma doesn’t just affect our bodies or our memories. It also influences how we act in the world. Van der Kolk explains that trauma is a physiological response to fear and prevents us from being fully engaged in the present. Those affected, in other words, are at a particular disadvantage because they — rather than realizing their own agency to change a situation — often feel helpless.
However, van der Kolk adds, it’s important not to think of trauma as a blanket statement. Discord and strife are normal human experiences; trauma is more often the result when a person is left without a way out of those experiences. “[Trauma] leaves you hopeless, vulnerable, horrified, unprotected. It changes your perception of the world as a safe place, and of you as an active agent,” he says.
Those experiencing this may also struggle to empathize or become close with others. Van der Kolk, however, believes that difficult events, when shared, can have an unexpected effect: They can bring people together. “I see more collective healing than collective trauma,” he says.
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