Arthur Evans, CEO of the American Psychological Association (APA), says viewing the world as unsafe can be a symptom of trauma.
"I think for a lot of people, the idea of having a mental health challenge is there's something inside of me that's wrong," he said. "And I think the idea of trauma helps people to understand that, no, this is something that is happening to me and how I'm responding is a natural response."
Is it trauma?
These feelings of anxiety and stress are becoming increasingly common in the pandemic, Evans said.
"We absolutely are experiencing a mental health tsunami," he said. "And we expect that it will grow even more ... so we haven't even crested this tsunami yet."
A survey by the APA found a significant increase in the demand for mental health treatment in 2021. Providers are stretched thin, waitlists are growing, and people are reaching out for myriad problems, Evans said, but anxiety, depression and other trauma-related disorders were at the top.
But the uptick in demand for mental health treatment was not necessarily a rise in pandemic-related trauma, said psychiatrist and neurologist Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. He has spent his career trying to figure out how people adapt to trauma.
His 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, explores how the brain, mind and body process trauma. Eight years after it was first published, the book found itself on The New York Times bestseller list for months, and it was one of the most-sold books on Amazon during the pandemic.
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