I heard Governor Cuomo today refer to the medical workers, the doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists, as doing God’s work, and noting the season.

There are archetypal undercurrents.

The threat is a bug, not even alive, a virus, a replicating entity on the edges of life, an alien threat to us all, its target is humanity.  In war the enemy is us, other people, and we know where our enemy is, over there.  With pandemic, the enemy is an alien life form, and the treat is to us all, and is everywhere.

The threat is even in the air we breathe.  It surrounds us everywhere, invisible and deadly.

Pandemic is complex trauma.  Death trauma is 911 – horrific – horrific – horrific – the first responders that day, the heroes doing God’s work of courage and sacrifice, were the NPYD and FDNY.  Honor.

It ended, 911 did.  We cleared the rubble.  We grieved the loss.  We struggled with the trauma of the experience.  The attack of 911 was traumatic, we recovered.

Pandemic is complex trauma.  The death toll on 911 was 3,000, New York now has 4,000 pandemic deaths and growing.  The twin towers in New York crumbled in a day, the complex trauma of pandemic will last for weeks, and linger into months.  Complex trauma is a different form of trauma than death-based trauma like combat or a terrorist attack.

Complex trauma is unrelenting stress and fear, it’s not immediate, it doesn’t end.

Pandemic carries archetypal themes not provided by the bug, they come from us, from our response, from our inherent nature.  We come together, we fight back, we win and we endure.  In tragedy and trauma we rise up to live into our better natures, we step forward to do God’s work here, with our family, our people, our tribe and our community, and with pandemic our family is all of humanity.  We are one.

The threat to us is not to a group, it is to us as a species, as humans, a threat from an alien creature, not even quite alive.

Courage steps forward depending on the need, for 911 it was with police and fire fighters, for Covid-19 it’s the medical workers, doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and more, in our hospitals, on the front lines, placing their own health and safety at risk, to serve.  Indeed, God’s work.  Governor Cuomo is exactly correct, he knows because he’s there and sees it.

He also sounded as if he’s bracing.  This coming week is projected to be a bad one.  The worst case is that physicians must decide who lives and who dies, that is horrific if it arrives.  The Governor will not allow thought of that possibility, and rightly so, going into battle we win, there is no alternative.  Yet, foresight sees what it sees and there is concern.

He spoke of his emotional exhaustion, and it was evident in his voice.  There is no longer any way he can influence the coming wave, he’s done what he can do, he’s bracing for the coming action, an emotional pause of exhaustion before the coming response.  The Governor spoke of the stress from responsibility when death is the outcome, a rising death.

Complex trauma is different.  It is a prolonged exposure to exceedingly high levels of unrelenting stress, anxiety, and fear.  A central core of the trauma is it is prolonged, it doesn’t end, and it is all around, in the very air you breath.

In our day-to-day world, complex trauma is the world of child abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and psychological abuse are all complex traumas – prolonged exposure to exceedingly high levels of unrelenting stress, anxiety, and fear, and it’s all around the child, the danger is in the surrounding family, in the parents, in the very air the child breathes.

Child abuse is complex trauma.  So is pandemic.

This medical wave will move through, starting in New York and then rippling throughout the country, prolonged exposure to exceedingly high levels of unrelenting stress, anxiety, and fear, followed by an end to the immediate lock-down and reopening of a daily life shattered economically by the pandemic.

Economic and financial insecurities for all sectors of the social fabric will be exceedingly high, anxieties compounded by uncertainty.  A prolonged exposure to exceedingly high levels of unrelenting stress, anxiety, and fear for current financial standing, and fears for the financial uncertainty that lay ahead.

Those at the margins of livelihood, single parents, service workers, contract workers, may collapse under the effects of stay-at-home orders on themselves and their employers, and the stresses of rent and food become immediate and severe concern.  Complex trauma is different than death-trauma, 911 was a horrific day that rippled outward, pandemic is not a day, it doesn’t end, it ripples through time, a prolonged exposure to stress, fear, and anxiety; unrelenting and everywhere.

There are reasons for archetypes. They organize meaning for us, and help us orient and find a path.

Everything moves in balance.  The challenge of pandemic brings forth our courage, and heroes arise from our response – to do God’s work.  Risking life and safety for service to others – NYPD, FDNY, New York doctors and nurses, medical staff and support, front-line in the trenches of the death and trauma.  Heroes, every one.

And they are us.  Our family.  Those are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers.  I have family in the health care sector, they are us, and they are heroes, doing God’s work.  Bless them and keep them safe.

New York led on 911, they lead now on Covid-19.  New York led on immigration and formation of our country, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  New York is America, Babe Ruth, baseball and the Yankees.  New Yorkers are tough, they’re New Yorkers, they are the strength and courage of America, and we stand with you New York, all of us.

Everything moves in balance.  God’s work is at hand and visible.  It’s in us.  Each one of us, and in the nobility of our doctors, nurses, and medical professionals.  Bless them and keep them safe.

Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist, PSY 18857