One Day at a Time
We Need to Learn How to Live Here Now
Daily insights on life in the face of uncertainty, by psychiatrist and habit change specialist Dr. Jud Brewer
Today’s column is about how to use this unusual situation we’re all living through to set good mental habits instead of creating or adding to unhealthy ones.
My wife and I live in Massachusetts, which has a shelter-in-place order in effect. We’ve been doing the right thing and staying home unless we absolutely have to leave the house. We went out to buy groceries the other day. At Trader Joe’s, the shelves were pretty bare. My wife asked the clerk why, and he said that the staff restocks every night, but people come in early and buy everything up. That’s a perfect example of panic buying. Although there is no food shortage, we create the illusion of one when we act like it.
Panic causes the thinking part of our brains to go offline. Panic puts us in survival mode. And panic is contagious. On the opposite end of the spectrum from panic buying is the practice of pandemic denying. This is also a fear response, but it takes the form of acting tough and saying that everyone else is overblowing this situation.
