Collective Trauma and Your Window of Tolerance: How COVID-19 is Changing Us All

Collective trauma is defined as a traumatic event or series of events that affect large numbers of people; witnessing or merely hearing about horrific events (Definition adapted from Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience, A program of Eastern Mennonite University). This pandemic is affecting large number of people, and those who are not directly affected are witnessing and hearing about it almost constantly.

A pandemic is defined as an epidemic that is spread over multiple countries or continents while an epidemic is defined as a disease that affects a large number of people in a community, region or population. These definitions tell us that collectively, we are experiencing a new type of challenge. Not only is it a challenge, but it is traumatic. As it is traumatic to a vast population* around the globe, this pandemic can be categorized as collective trauma.

Jennifer Yaeger, a licensed professional counselor has taken us through what so many of us have been feeling and thinking: that living through this pandemic is traumatic. The slide below speaks to how our brains are responding to the situation around us.

One point that is critical to remember now is that processing of a trauma does not need to and often will not happen until months, years later, when we are feeling emotionally and physically able to process and deal with the effects of such a challenging event.

Naming that a traumatic event is occurring is the first step because it allows us to find information about how we are reacting and “being” in the present. Our window of tolerance is something that helps name how our bodies and minds are responding to trauma. Check out the visual below to see more of what we mean:

What are some things that are putting you outside your window of tolerance? What about your family? Where are their windows at every day?

Having the Window of Tolerance as common language can be really helpful. It’s a great way to do check ins with each other and let people around you know that your window is small and shrinking, getting larger or anything in between.

Try it out! Let us know if this language helps you name and communicate with other people around you during this time! Comment below with some of the stressors that are bringing you towards hyper/hypo arousal.

*We also want to recognize that this pandemic is disproportionately affecting different populations around the globe and in countries. While we do not want to compare suffering, it is important to acknowledge the different communities who are being affected more for various reasons, such as economic status, immigrantion status, race, health care access, etc.