Reading Roundup | August 20, 2021
Posted August 20, 2021
Touching a bit on anxiety, depression, and OCD this week.
“How To Deal With Renewed COVID Anxiety” — Ari Shapiro, Karen Zamora, and Courtney Dorning, NPR (8/14/2021) [article]
This piece describes so well the recent hope and even more recent anxiety that so many of us have been experiencing. Only a month or so ago we were looking to the future, to catching up on all that we missed over the past year-and-a-half of restricted living and now we're back to only being able to focus on the present danger. It's a lot of weight to carry and so hard to know what to do. This line from the piece perhaps best describes how we can navigate all of the back-and-forth: "But what we need to do is, just as we have to modulate fears so that we protect ourselves without driving ourselves crazy, we need to manage expectations for what life is going to look like once we have this virus under better control."
“‘I don’t wait for those things to find me:’ How actress Kristen Bell combats her anxiety and depression at work” — Jade Scipioni, CNBC (8/14/2021) [article]
We're seeing more and more celebrities share publicly about their private struggles with anxiety and depression. In this article, Kristen Bell talks about how she hid her mental health issues for a long time, worrying about what others would think. However, when she finally sought help and was able to talk about what was going on, she found she was better able to manage her feelings. While everyone is different—and thus will need different paths to manage their anxiety and depression—Bell's story is a good reminder that finding a way to feel better can often begin with opening up to someone else, and a trained mental health clinician is an excellent place to start.
“Living With O.C.D. in a Pandemic” — Jane E. Brody, NY Times (8/16/2021) [article]
Another good article that takes the time to explain that OCD is not just an issue of neatness and order, that it can manifest in many different ways and that it can be debilitating for sufferers. Brody walks us through what OCD is, how it can be treated, and offers suggestions for finding help. We have our own resources available here: https://www.citycenterpsychotherapy.com/ocd-treatment