The lines between stress and crisis and trauma are often razor thin. Every day since this pandemic has taken hold, I am encountering people who are experiencing this crisis with a sense of how they should be somehow doing it differently - doing it better. That kind of self judgment, always but especially in a crisis, is so harmful.

One way I try to combat this is by calling the experience what it is. Instead of thinking “I’m messing it up”, stop to recognize how messed up this actually is.

Here are a few points from a graduate counseling course I’ve been teaching. These points help to show us where and how a plain ol’ every day stressor turns into something traumatic. When looking at the effects and experience of the COVID crisis, it’s easy to see we are in uncharted waters - a very dangerous feeling indeed.

What you’re feeling - whatever you’re feeling - is normal because none of this is normal. Just take it one day, one minute, at a time. And reach out for assistance when and where needed.