Collective PTSD

Is that possible?

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

This morning, the breeze through my window is cool and gentle, the green maple leaves flutter, exposing their pale undersides. It’s lovely here, we say, but another heat wave is coming.

We feel a sense of foreboding danger. Storms are more severe, air flight is more turbulent, temperatures are rising to dangerous levels. And that’s just the weather.

Driving around town on errands, I lament. All our cars and trucks polluting the air, one person in each vehicle, alone with our private voices or music or opinion leaders. Passing ‘big box’ stores selling sythetic products we don’t really need.

Was it only four years ago we were afraid to bring our groceries indoors, washed our hands like surgeons, stayed away from the ones we loved?

We grew more and more angry with each other, encouraged by those in power. We grew afraid of progress, of “different” people changing our world, taking away our comfort.

And now, here we are. Battleworn, shellshocked, bonetired and weary. We have quite a few well-worn cliches for this feeling, don’t we? We’ve been here before.

But the hits keep on coming. The Supreme Court declares the President is above the law while performing “official” duties. The press treats a criminal, rapist insurrectionist as a normal candidate, while reporting that his opponent, a good man, is too old to lead the country.

According to the Mayo Clinic, here are the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

Intrusive memories (Stickers reminding us to wear a mask, to wash our hands “thoroughly”)

Avoidance (Netflix, anyone?)

Negative changes in thinking and mood (Why do we need so many ‘gratitude’ practices these days?)

Changes in physical and emotional reactions (always being on guard for danger)

The Clinic offers suggestions: tell a friend, a spiritual advisor, a hotline, your doctor. But what do we do if our whole society is suffering?

Maybe the same things and more: Talk about it, write about it, acknowledge it. Take a nice long walk in nature. And then, do everything we can to stop the train of despair and heal our country.