Harris Faulkner of FOX News joins a long list of journalists — from Chris Cuomo to Anderson Cooper, Lester Holt, and Sanjay Gupta — who have responded to the coronavirus crisis to deliver clarity amid the confusion. When she launched her daily special, "Coronavirus Pandemic: Questions Answered," in mid-March most of us were hearing the term "flatten the curve" for the first time. Now, she talks to SurvivorNet about today’s town hall, “America Copes Together,” which, she says, will highlight the emotional toll the crisis is taking on all of us, whether we’re isolating at home or working the front lines.
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Read MoreBite-Size It
With "America Copes Together" I really want to help people break down their concerns into bite-sized nuggets. These issues mental health, isolation, stress support can feel huge. So if you can ask: What war am I fighting today? Is it washing hands, wearing a mask, avoiding the virus?Is it feeling scared to go to work, if you're essential? Is it isolation? How do I deal with that battle today? If you can bite-size it, you can figure out what you need now and find the answers.
Her Mom's Advice: "Who Can You Heal?"
Faulkner told SurvivorNet: My mom, Shirley Harris was diagnosed with fourth stage lung cancer in September of 2016 and she died before Thanksgiving at 79. She had a tumor on lung, one on her kidney, it was aggressive. It had metastasized. We were hunkered down; I understand the isolation of caregiving. I wanted to be there every moment.
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But she'd say: 'What are you doing here today? How do you know you're not supposed to be out there helping somebody else? I need for you to be the child I raised. Go make things better for other people. Go and be a blessing to others."
I learned from my mother that, for each of us, a lot of healing came come from doing things for other people. We can thank our first responders. We can reach out to someone and say: 'You are cherished.' It's important.
Grab a Pen: Write it Down
One expert had an idea I really loved: Take it into a different realm with old-school handwriting. We're saturated with digital communication all day. We're on computers or texting. But it helps to put pen to paper. As you're writing, you're looking for a personal revelation: What, exactly, are you dealing with today?
And when you look at your own handwriting, some of those questions will be right there on the page. Then drill down on what you wrote:
Google that question and then, as this expert advised, add the word 'help'.
I'm open about my daily concerns. I have a lot of guilt because I am working from home while my children are digitally learning. I don't always have time to help them as much as I should. So, I have feelings of guilt about that. I googled 'guilt' and then added 'help' to see what came up.
That's not prescriptive, but I spent twenty minutes finding ways to feel better about it. That's just one little glimpse into what we're all dealing with and how to handle it.
Target your Situation
Suffering takes on a lot of levels, but tremendous resources are out there. You can find online support groups that meet on zoom. But before you start googling them, target your situation. It's not an indictment to wake up in the morning to feel sad today, to think, 'I'm not sure I can take more isolation, I need someone to hug me'.
Doctors want us to give ourselves permission to express that feeling, in order to work it out. Tap into that network; they're there for you now not ten days from now today. When you drill down on what your issue is, you can find the right help for your problem. This helps you create an action plan.
We're In This Together
So many people are dealing with this. Mental health affects all of us; we're in it together. Throughout the town hall, if there's one common theme, I've heard, it's this: it is legitimately hard to get anything done today. We're not able to exchange information in the same way: You don't see your colleague walking down the hall at work; you're not running into your neighbor at the gas station.
We can't communicate in person so we're relying on texting and email to communicate and it's harder. Then we push down our feelings, trying to contain them, so they don't become a distraction. But there are so many people dealing with this. Mental health affects all of us; we're in this together.
"America Copes Together" is Faulkner's fourth in-depth town hall during the coronavirus pandemic. A six-time Emmy winner, Faulkner recently presented "America Learns Together" which focused on the challenges of distance learning for parents and educators.
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