 This painting by Corinne DeCost is also featured in our Art of Emotions gallery. I was diagnosed with PTSD when I was 20 years old. I didn't feel like I had "earned" this diagnosis, though. I wasn't a war veteran, nor had I been beaten or life-threateningly injured. But I had been dealing with constant nightmares and debilitating panic attacks regarding a certain day of my life.
The day I was raped. It wasn't as violent as films portrayed - perhaps because cinema relies on visuals to portray the pain. I resigned, submitted, and silently cried. Even now, trying to recall moments I'm comfortable enough describing, my heart races. Everything around me narrows. Trying to go back to those moments is like running into a burning building. If I know I'm going back for a specific item, and I know just where it is, I can zip in and out while only dealing with the heat for a moment. But if I wander in, looking around at everything, the fire starts to nip at me. It burns.
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What can we do about resistance? Is there an alternative? Should we resist resistance? The alternative is acceptance.
Resistance is not a new word, but for many of us awareness of resistance is new. In Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, resistance is defined: "to withstand, to strive against, to exert force in opposition, to counteract, defeat or frustrate." Resistance is useful if there is a flu or virus around. If your body's immune system is working as it should, you'll have good "resistance to disease"--you'll stay healthy. Resistance to the temptation to do something that goes against your core values will strengthen you, while giving into that temptation will weaken your character.
 We are in unprecedented times. The impact of the pandemic is significant on multiple levels, including psychological, as it contradicts what is familiar and expected in the world leading to confusion and uncertainty. For some, it may be impairing your ability to cope with all that is happening leading to strong emotional responses like grief, panic, anxiety or depression.
Trauma experts Dr. Peter Levine, PhD and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, recently sat down together (from afar) for an online webinar to discuss the pandemic from the perspective of psychological impact. They shared their thoughts on some of the primary risks of the COVID19 pandemic as well as what can be done.
 COVID-19, more commonly known as the Coronavirus, has reached every continent--with the exception of Antarctica--in less than six months. That means that day-to-day life has changed for just about everyone on Earth, and rapidly. It’s difficult to not to give into the anxiety, panic and despair that words like pandemic and quarantine can inspire, but there are ways you can help yourself—and the people in your life—get through this ordeal. It was Geoffrey F. Fisher who said, "In cities no one is quiet but many are lonely; in the country, people are quiet but few are lonely..."
In today's fast paced society, we've become accustomed to filling the eeriness of silence with fluff. We turn to many distractions as a means of escaping feelings of idleness or boredom. But the main thing we wish to elude is loneliness. Solitude does not have to alienating or lonesome. In fact, solitude and loneliness are distinctly separate. This article should be helpful to all managers and professionals, but is aimed particularly at those whose work-life balance has been changed by the additional workload, and potential stress, of studying management development courses or professional qualifications, by distance learning or in the classroom, in order to develop their careers.
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