Online therapy for anxiety about coronavirus;

Info from a licensed therapist in Long Beach.

For many people who don’t have to deal with anxiety on a daily basis, they are learning  a little bit about what anxiety feels like.  Like many people, I went for my normal shopping trip to the grocery store this week and found that I couldn’t replenish my toilet paper for regular use, they didn’t have my normal milk, peanut butter, they were completely out of jelly and they were out of the regular butter that I buy (I took the last one, and it wasn’t the butter I usually buy).  They didn’t have many of the things I would normally buy and the checkout line was 30 minutes long.  At dinner my kids asked why things tasted weird and I explained that when we buy different brands than we are used to, the food will taste different.  As this pandemic spreads, the issues of not being able to buy the type of butter we are are used to may be the least of our problems.  Someone who has anxiety has already thought through that thoroughly because that is just what anxiety does to us.  It has us look at every single possible bad outcome that could possibly happen.

Even though I wasn’t concerned about the Coronavirus before (because I am a pretty healthy person who isn’t in any of the risk categories), I felt some anxiety about not being able to purchase necessary items for my family.  We are all having to get used to a new normal and since we are biologically creatures of habit, getting used to buying different products and having to deal with not having access to what we want/need when we want/need it creates some anxiety.  This creates a change in our homeostasis and when we change major things in our lives, or even just a change in the butter we use, it creates stress on our systems.  The stress is even worse when the change wasn’t our choice in the first place.  On top of that, we are all being encouraged to socially distance ourselves and since we are social creatures, that creates another layer of anxiety.

Let me explain how anxiety about the Coronavirus is different than regular anxiety:

(1) Other people are worried about the Coronavirus too, so you aren’t as likely to feel weak or have as much self-judgement or judgment by other people when you worry about it.  If you don’t want to leave the house (as is being recommended by a lot of top health officials and scientists), you can talk to other people on the phone about how they are making the same decisions as you are.  So even if you are judged by some, you will find support in other people who are following the CDC/scientist guidelines also.

(2) Most people who don’t usually have anxiety know that at some point this will end.  Whether it is through finding a cure or immunization for the Coronavirus or that we kill the Coronavirus off by social distancing, it will eventually go away.  People with anxiety don’t know when their usual anxiety will end which causes even more anxiety.

For people who already struggle with anxiety, this whole Coronavirus epidemic is causing a double whammy.   If you are already in therapy and needing help with your anxiety but you are afraid to go out of your house right now, ask your therapist if they do phone sessions or online sessions.  If you don’t have a therapist and you are dealing with anxiety (whether the anxiety was there before Coronavirus or not), consider reaching out to us to schedule by calling/texting 562.310.9741.  Even if you don’t live in Long Beach, we do online and phone sessions for anyone in California.