America is in a funk, but no one seems to know why. Unemployment is lower than it has been in half a century and the stock market is soaring, but poll after poll shows voters are dissatisfied.President Joe Biden’s Support rate He is in his late 30s. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives, a measure that typically declines during times of economic uncertainty, is near an all-time low, a report said. Gallup poll.And almost half of Americans investigated In January, he said the situation was worse than it was three years ago.
Experts struggle to find a convincing explanation for this era of bad feelings. Perhaps it’s because of the spate of inflation over the past few years, the migrant crisis at the border, or the brutal wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But even those who claim to understand the world of politics admit that these rational elements exist. Can not completely account Due to the unrest in America. We think that’s because they’re overlooking an important element.
Four years ago, this country was destroyed by a world-historical catastrophe. COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) hospitalization Nearly 7 million Americans died and more than 1 million were killed.still kill Hundreds every week.closed schools and forced people into social isolation. Almost overnight, large parts of the country fell into a state of intense anxiety and eventually a state of sadness and mourning. But this country has not come together to fully recognize the tragedy it has experienced. As clinical psychiatrists, we see the effects of such emotional turmoil every day and know that if not handled properly, it can lead to an overall sense of unhappiness and anger. Masu. This is precisely the negative emotional state that can cause the state to misperceive emotions. Good luck.
The pressure to just move on from the horrors of 2020 is intense. Who wouldn’t want to wake up from that nightmare and pretend it never happened? Additionally, humans have a knack for purifying the most painful memories. in 2009 study, participants did significantly worse at remembering how they felt in the days after the 9/11 attacks. This is likely because those memories were filtered by their current emotional state. Similarly, study was announced on Nature A study last year found that people’s recollection of the seriousness of the threat from the 2020 coronavirus is skewed by their attitudes toward vaccines months or years from now.
[From the May 2021 issue: You won’t remember the pandemic the way you think you will]
When faced with an overwhelming and painful reality like the coronavirus, forgetting can be helpful, and to some extent even healthy. This allows people to temporarily put aside fear and pain and focus on the pleasures and demands of daily life, restoring a sense of control. That way, the loss becomes something manageable rather than defining them.
However, entrusting painful memories to the River Lethe also has obvious drawbacks, especially as time passes. Ignoring such experiences deprives us of the opportunity to learn from them. Additionally, denying painful memories and trying to move on as if everything is normal can distort a person’s emotional life and have undesirable effects. researcher Clinicians who work with veterans say that avoiding thinking and talking about overwhelming and painful events can lead to floating sadness and anger, all of which can lead to an obsession with the current situation. It shows that. For example, if you meet an old friend who is a military veteran at a cafe, and he accidentally knocks over his coffee, he turns red in the face and yells at you.The accident might not be the only reason for his rage. You’ll find that there isn’t. . No one would be that upset over spilled coffee. The real root of such anger must lie elsewhere. In this case, it may be his untreated PTSD, which is characterized by a strong startle response and heightened emotional reactivity.
We’re not saying the entire country is suffering from PTSD from the coronavirus. In fact, the vast majority of people exposed to trauma never show symptoms of PTSD afterwards. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t seriously affected. In our lifetimes, the coronavirus posed an unprecedented threat in both its overwhelming scope and severity. Most Americans were unable to protect themselves and at times were unable to understand what was happening. This fits the clinical definition of trauma. An overwhelming experience of being under threat of serious physical or psychological harm.
[Read: Why are people nostalgic for early-pandemic life?]
Traumatic memories are notable for how they change the way people remember the past and think about the future.Recent brain imaging tests study They showed that when people with a history of trauma are prompted to revisit those terrifying events, parts of the brain that are normally used when thinking about themselves in the present become activated. In other words, this study suggests that when traumatic memories were recalled, they appeared as if they were being relived during the study. A traumatic memory does not feel like a historical event, but is detached from its origin and returned to the eternal present, leaving the person with the memory searching for an explanation. And at that moment, in everyday life, there are many unpleasant events that cause such feelings. It could be a friend, the price of groceries, or a country’s leader.
As clinicians know, coming to terms with a traumatic experience requires doing more than ignoring it or simply remembering it. Rather, we need to rework disconnected memories into contexts, thereby moving them firmly into the past. It helps to have a story that helps you understand when, how, and why something happened. For example, if you were robbed in a dark street and became afraid of the night, your therapist might suggest connecting your general fear with the details of the assault. Then your fear will be meaningful and limited to that limited situation. Then, the more you venture in the dark, perhaps avoiding the dangerous blocks you jumped off, the more you form new and safe memories, which help reduce your anxiety.
Many people don’t regularly remember the details of the early days of the pandemic. How walking through crowded streets caused fear, how sirens blared like clockwork in the city, how you had to worry about inadvertently killing your grandparents while visiting them. . But the emotions that experience kindled are still strong today. This can make it difficult to rationally assess the state of our lives and our country.
One solution is for leaders to encourage memory recall while providing accurate and reliable information about both the past and present. Early in the pandemic, President Donald Trump mismanaged the crisis and spread misinformation about the coronavirus. But in the traumatic ambiguity of 2020, Trump seems to have become the beneficiary of our collective amnesia, and Biden the repository of lingering emotional grievances. Some of that misattribution may be addressed by revisiting the shocking events of the past four years and remembering what Americans have been through. This remembering process can be emotionally cathartic and, if done correctly, can also help replace distorted memories with more accurate memories.
President Biden called on the nation to mourn together again in 2021, when the U.S. death toll reaches 500,000, and again in 2022, when it surpasses 1 million. In his 2022 State of the Union address, he rightly acknowledged that “tonight, we meet in America, where we have lived through two of the most difficult years this country has ever faced,” and urged Americans to ” He urged them to move forward safely. But for the past two years, he, like most everyone else, has tried to go about his business as if everyone was back to normal. On the other hand, whether we realize it or not, American hearts and minds are completely unprepared.
[Read: The Biden administration killed America’s collective pandemic approach]
Perhaps Biden and his advisers fear that reminding voters of these dark days will cause further problems for his presidency. Nevertheless, our study leads us to believe that the effect is quite the opposite. Rituals of remembrance and remembrance help people come together to share their grief and face their daily lives with clearer eyes. Paradoxically, by urging Americans to remember what we have endured together, Biden will help free us all to experience the present more fully.
