Coronavirus anxiety (at the cosmic level)

I asked myself: What could a therapist do for someone with high coronavirus anxiety? Therapy is not very effective against anxiety, despite what the books, TED Talks, PhDs, psychiatrists, researchers with their chemical imbalances and wonders of neuroscience, drug commercials and pharmaceutical reps, CEU workshops and therapists say. Those whose pandemic anxiety is extreme and debilitating are those who have already been – have probably always been – “good at” anxiety. It’s part of their neurochemical structure. And that means it’s part of their history.

Do your pseudo-scientific breathing exercises with their four seconds in and seven seconds out, your progressive muscle relaxation, your self-talk and Cognitive Therapy, meditation, mindfulness, take your anxiety meds and use edibles. If you were emotionally pulverized in childhood, none of this will help but evanescently. However, if your historical complexity contains some small oases, some real moments of love and care, then self-talk may call forth those real parts of your past and grow late girders of strength (intertwined with the damaged roots).

I adhere to my “faith of the obvious,” believing that the original, discrete fears from which anxiety grew can be ejected from our holistic system, leaving us recovered persons. We return to childhood and cry and rage where we couldn’t then. We become true to our child feeling selves for as long as it takes – not rushed to move on, as children always are, and join the ticking clock that adults follow.

But this healing is very rare: We have too many cells and memories filled with the chemicals of emotion. And we have an identity that grew from fear, and wouldn’t be the same identity without it. Without our formative shocks and hurts, how could we continue to be the codependent server of others, intertwined in their lives, be the good wife or good son or cheerful do-gooder or liberal? We would be a different person, going in a different direction.

So I would take a person in dread of the sometimes fatal virus and I’d say, Let’s look at your childhood. But be aware of the ramifications: There’s a slight chance you could become fearless.