By Simran Sethi, The New York Times, March 18, 2020
“Life is one thing after another,” Dr. Harriet Lerner, a psychologist and author, said. “And just because the universe has already sent us one big stress, it doesn’t mean we won’t be hit with others.”
Dr. Lerner has spent much of her career researching the effects of anxiety and fear on individuals, families and larger systems. She has also managed anxiety in her own life (documented in her best seller “The Dance of Fear”). That makes her the perfect person to help us tackle the rise in panic accompanying Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Last week the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The virus has infected approximately 210,000 people globally, rattling financial markets, upending local economies and resulting in over 8,700 deaths worldwide, with numbers expected to climb. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 5,300 cases in the United States and, as of publication, close to 100 people have died.
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