Irritable? Can’t sleep? We react to pandemic’s stress in many ways, experts say

Stress and anxiety from the COVID-19 outbreak that has swept across Washington and the nation affects people’s lives in several ways, said Dr. Jurgen Unutzer, a psychiatrist and health services researcher at the University of Washington.

“For some of us, we literally feel the stress emotionally, physically; we might be more irritable. We might be shorter with people. We really have to give each other and ourselves a lot of latitude right now because stress doesn’t always bring out the best in us,” he said.

“For some people, it’s causing tremendous problems with insomnia. If you are thinking about this and you can’t turn off your thinking about it, and instead you’re sitting there and surfing the web and you’re finding one scary story after another, that might be challenging. For some people, it might put them at risk for substance use that’s not helpful,” he added.

Unutzer, professor and chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UW, and Kristen P. Lindgren, a UW professor and licensed clinical psychologist, spoke in a telebriefing held by the Joint Information Center, the nerve center of the state’s COVID-19 response at Camp Murray.

Some people who are on the front lines are having problems concentrating and functioning.

“We have health care workers who I have spoken with in the last few days who are saying, `I’m here, but I’m not even really here because I’m thinking of all the things that could be going wrong at work. I’m thinking about my children. I’m thinking about my parents, one of whom is sick,’ ” Unutzer said.

Unutzer said stress and anxiety are normal in a time like this.

“If you’re not feeling strong stress right now, you might be a robot. Anxiety can be very helpful. It keeps us on our toes. It helps make sure we are aware of risks around us and that we are being extremely careful during this time. So if you’re stressed or anxious right now, it doesn’t mean that you have a mental illness. You’re just stressed like so many of us,” he said.

Unutzer said he is seeing a lot of people who are stressed but are coping well, but the anxiety and stress for others can become overwhelming when combined with fear, anger, and grief.

“For some, the longer that this crisis wears on, we may eventually get overwhelmed and depressed and that we’re not functioning well at work or at home,” he said.

Lingren said there are ways for people to cope with stress.

“One of the most important things ... is good social support. We want to be able to look out for each other; ways in which can we actually connect and help support other people. We want to be careful how much media exposure that we are getting and really limiting that into small doses. We want to be thoughtful about basic well-being strategies — exercise, sleep, healthy eating,” she said.

The state has nearly 1 million residents who live with a mental health or substance use disorder and they are particularly vulnerable right now, Unutzer said.

“They may have less access to their usual supports and treatments and that puts them at additional risk. Their families may be a really important source of support, but perhaps elderly parents are at high risk themselves and they can’t step in right now. We need to work hard to make sure that our behavioral health services in our communities continue to function even under a lot of stress and adverse circumstances,” he said.

Unutzer predicted that Washington will emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger than before.

“But there are going to be some of us who will have very traumatic experiences and losses and that may follow us for years to come. So we have to be prepared to offer really good behavioral health care — not only during this crisis, but also afterwards,” he said.

This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Irritable? Can’t sleep? We react to pandemic’s stress in many ways, experts say."