Many of us have felt fearful and anxious as the coronavirus Covid19 spread around the world. It quickly reached our neighbourhoods and impacted directly on our lives.  We have worried about our relatives and feared for those with underlying health conditions. While some of us felt alone and vulnerable in isolation others are grieving the loss of their loved ones.  Many people have lost their jobs and some have seen their family business close.

There has been a collective trauma, one we can talk about and share our experience of with friends and family, but what about individual traumas that people suffer alone?  The intensity of lockdown triggered feelings and emotions that have been repressed for years.   Anxieties have played out in peoples’ dreams as they slept at night whilst others tossed and turned trying to sleep.

Emotional suffering can burden and torture the human psyche.  Unfortunately, during times of distress we seek solace in all the wrong places. Contentment and peace of mind will never be found in food, alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling, smartphones or other distractions.

Psychological problems such as depression, anxiety  or other difficulties do not occur in a vacuum.  Lockdown may have triggered unwanted thoughts, feelings and behaviours and even stirred up repressed emotions. Maybe that is an indication that it is time to treat the underlying cause of distress.

The primary aim of therapy is to identify and resolve the underlying originating cause of distress.  If untreated stressful and traumatic experiences become problematic unwanted symptoms of anxiety and depression.

“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.”
― C. H. Spurgeon