FOX 11 viewers speak out on COVID-19-related personal anxieties
How people are coping with the pandemic
It's been months since we first went into lockdown because of the pandemic-- and we've all been through so much. There are a lot of people out there who are truly struggling with emotions they have never experienced before. Hal Eisner checked in with some viewers and a doctor about how we're all coping.
LOS ANGELES - Because of our stay-at-home practices many of us have started to take a daily walk.
You do that?
When you do that do you think of words like these from FOX 11 viewer Rose Zednejas who says, “Due to the pandemic I’m dealing with two things I’ve never dealt with before - depression and anxiety.”
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To Psychiatrist Dr. Ricardo Whyte from Dignity Health Community Hospital in San Bernardino, he says, "We are just "exhausted…and exasperated!"
“We asked many of you to send us little videos about how you’re feeling with the increase in the restrictions.
FOX 11 Viewer Melissa Keyes told us she gets it.
"Numbers are on the rise and we have to protect ourselves."
Yvonne Sanders gets it too.
From Tustin, she says she is "... Going through chemo as you can see. A little bit anxious about how things are going to be having been laid off before COVID. Then cancer and now COVID - anxious about jobs. Anxious about people’s health.”
Here’s a woman who's lost a husband; is dealing with chemotherapy now during a pandemic.
Says Whyte, “This is a tough situation and I just honor you, Yvonne.”
To the psychiatrist, it's about focusing on the positive and, as tough as the negative can be, not ignoring the downside.
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To others like Laurence Cohen, there is a downside. He says, "I miss the spontaneity of doing the things I love to do like going out to dinner, going to a movie, going to the gym. I long for the time that that can happen again.” The doctor says think about what you CAN do as opposed to what you can’t. And, that includes those all-important birthdays and anniversaries you’re missing.
To some, what we are going through now could make us stronger in the future.
Viewer Margo Schultz says, “I am from Poland and I lived through marshal law as a child and this made me a stronger person.”
In the final analysis, Dr. Whyte had to do some of the very things he's suggesting to all of us. He says, "I have family members who actually came down with COVID.”
They recovered, but he realizes it could've been worse. And, now he helps others based on knowing himself what he needed to maintain good mental health.