- Experts say survivor’s guilt is becoming an issue for people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- They say the most vulnerable people are those who know someone who has died from the disease or had a serious illness from it.
- They say symptoms of survivor’s guilt include obsessive thoughts, sleep difficulties, and a loss of motivation.
- Among the ways to cope with this guilt are socializing, expressing gratitude, and helping others.
Recovering from COVID-19 can lead to complex feelings of grief, better known as survivor’s guilt.
And experts are saying this is a growing issue as the pandemic hits its 1-year mark in the United States.
“Survivor’s guilt occurs when an individual survives a harrowing or traumatic experience, but concludes that they were somehow undeserving of survival or that someone else would have been more deserving,” Arianna Galligher, LISW-S, associate director of STAR Trauma Recovery Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Healthline.
Prior to the pandemic, survivor’s guilt was associated with people who have survived life threatening situations such as war, the Holocaust, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and organ transplants.
The condition is common in groups such as veterans and first responders.
However, experts say the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is showing us that this common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) doesn’t discriminate.
“It can be really challenging to have a positive or better outcome post-trauma when you know that others have not been afforded a similar opportunity,” Akua K. Boateng, PhD, LPC, a licensed psychotherapist, told Healthline.
Source: healthline