(Dave Yasvinsk/ Healthing) — As the end of the pandemic moves mercifully closer to reality, a new wave of anxiety is washing over shell-shocked survivors as they slowly step out of the safety of their extended solitude.
Experts say COVID-19 has taken a PTSD-type toll on society, the full extent of which may not be understood for years to come. In the meantime, Dr. Sarb Johal, a psychologist and the author of Steady: A Guide to Better Mental Health Through and Beyond the Coronavirus Pandemic, offers some advice for staying sane and healthy while rejoining a world where the concept of normal has become a relic of the past.
Johal has helped steer New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the World Health Organization (WHO) through some of the worst crises of the past 10 years, including the pandemic. New Zealand’s COVID-19 experience has been different than that of the rest of the world. (…)