Can there be any doubt whatsoever? When this is over, we are going to have . . . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . . . a significant caseload of front line medical professionals with PTSD. And it will hit us in a big wave followed by another big wave, and another. And another. There will be all the collateral issues as well. Drugs. Drinking. Bad behavior. Partner abuse. Suicide.

And not medical professionals in the sense of doctors and nurses and technicians. They are foodservice workers. Custodial staff. Supply professionals, physical plant workers, security guards, admitting clerks. Every one of them as important as the next.

As they stood up for us, we MUST stand up for them.

[mopinko]

1. some smart weed guys should start sending them joints.

sound like a joke, but trust me, this once, i am not kidding.

[MsLeopard]

8. +1 nt

[lambchopp59]

16. Sounds entertaining, but no, thanks

I'm paranoid enough about this fucking thing without exacerbating that. I'm also not certain of the immune system effects so essential to speedy recovery of this thing.
As a healthcare worker there's a bit of a joke about "weed": "Another marijuana related catastrophe" jibed only among hospital staff in jest because it's the phenomenon that almost never, ever happens. I'm not defending the chronic users, they are potentially causing themselves multiple issues especially if they're smoking it. Alcohol by leaps and bounds remains the catastrophe producing drug in countless ways by an exponent, and all of us absolutely hate the meth heads. I won't digress into that beyond stating that is the devil's deal of illicit drugs, there's no "safe" use of that garbage.
I tried baking up some brownies and eating them occasionally for arthritis pain a few years back with a strain highly recommended with good percentage content of the pain relieving ingredient. It didn't work for me. I was horny as hell, had bouts of diarrhea, became easily forgetful at work and gave the remainder away. I need to keep my wits about me at work. I have some meds only for occasional use from my doctor. He never commented much on my attempt to utilize "weed" that once as pain relief.
PTSD issues are not easily addressed. The most effective therapy I ever underwent was a drug-assisted exposure therapy. It wasn't an easy set of sessions to go through by any definition, but it effectively reduced the nightmares.

[mopinko]

18. then dont accept but

mostly it's like morphine in that when you are in pain, it gets used up before it makes you high.

it's also effective for a lot of people w ptsd. esp those who really have a missed tbi.

offering isnt forcing anyone. i'm not recommending doing clockwork orange here.

[Newest Reality]

2. I agree.

However, a verbal intent or assertion merely tends to be rhetoric that amounts to a more pragmatic version of thoughts and prayers. The reason I bring that up is that we all know it is rather easy to say I support x and stand up for x and then, just let that suffice, as if I did my part.

It is great that we all might stand up for them in that sense, but action will be the essential factor as far as supporting them in the aftermath of this debacle.

What can and will be done? How do we stand up for them when the time comes, individually? I get that caring about them, kindness, consideration an acknowledging them in the field will be improtant, but I also assume most of us on this side will do that naturally.

When we get sane and go blue again, maybe some bills should be drafted that provides support of various kinds for these people, if there are funds to do so when all is said and done.

Maybe there are other ideas?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. The weird thing is that after the Spanish Flu epidemic was over

hardly anybody except the medical researchers talked or wrote about it. You'd think there would be a whole lot of literature that addressed it, considering that it was much worse than this epidemic (at least so far), but the major authors who were active at the time barely mentioned it, if at all. A letter supposedly written by F. Scott Fitzgerald while quarantined in France turned out to be a parody that was created this year. In fact, authors like Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway pretty much ignored it in their writings. In 1939 Katherine Anne Porter wrote the novel Pale Horse, Pale Rider, which described her own experience with the illness - but there wasn't much else. The only other authors of note who wrote about the epidemic - years later - were John O’Hara (The Doctor’s Son, 1935) and William Maxwell (They Came Like Swallows, 1937). I wonder why? Was the experience so horrific that people decided they just didn't want to think about it? PTSD had to have been rampant then, too, considering that the carnage of WWI was part of the mix (and a significant cause as well). Will we react the same way?

[2naSalit]

4. My speculation is that

Much like veterans of the WWs, they didn't talk about it, lots of PTSD but they didn't talk about it. I suspect it is much the same in a collective acceptance that it happened and to move on because the memories were too much.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I think that's probably correct.

And I wonder what we will do. Will we be so shell-shocked that we won't want to write about it either?

[2naSalit]

6. I don't think we will respond that way.

That psychological era has passed... we are better informed, though it's hard to tell some days, and much more expressive and wanting everyone to know our pain. I think there will be a lot written and expressed for this set of events.

When these things go bad seems there's a POS, like we have now, exacerbating the situation for maniacal personal gain. We have about seven months to go and we have to go on the offensive to keep them contained such that whatever they do, we don't adhere to whatever they come up with. The part about our immediate situation is that we could break them by holding out. They can try to fuck everything up but we can rebuff the attacks and win this war declared on us by a portion of our government.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. I agree with you.

We've come a long way from "shell shock/battle fatigue" to "combat stress reaction" to "PTSD." I think we are going to see a lot of literature, art, theater, etc. expressing experience and reaction to this pandemic both contemporaneously and in the immediate aftermath.

[CTyankee]

13. My mother told me about it. it happened when she was very young.

[2naSalit]

14. Most of what

I was told when I was younger was what I was told by Canadians and Europeans. Some whom I encountered would tell their stories and experiences but people didn't talk about a lot of things then that they would talk about now. I had to wait until family members passed to hear of their lives I knew nothing about. I guess it was their tradition.

[Harry Walpurgisnacht]

7. And when this Horrid Excuse for a President is Finaaly Gone. . .

it'll take the country a couple of decades to undo his damage to it in all areas, not just health.

[dhol82]

9. It will take generations.

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. With all due respect...

allow me to correct your statement. When the horrid excuse for a political party is finally gone...

Please remember that Trump was given to us by the Rethugs. He has been coddled and protected by the Rethugs. He has been given carte blanche to do anything he wants by the inactions (and protections) of the Rethugs. Getting rid of Trump is the first step to reclaiming sanity in our government... but never forget that the republican party is responsible for him and for pretty much all the social polarization that has produced the terror and inequality in our lives. THEY ALL must be stopped. That party must be eliminated from our politics. They have proven to be the focal point of insanity and bigotry and they have to go. Otherwise, we are bound to get another Trump once the horror of his presidency starts to fade from the collective memory of the population.

(Ironic that they increasingly resemble the National Socialist Party when they want to convince us how much they hate the word 'Socialist')

[Warpy]

12. Most already have it

because losing patients is hard on all of us, we all beat ourselves up about whether there was some really subtle sign that was missed, or something else we could have tried. Most of mine is from the early days of the AIDS epidemic, but there are other contributors along the line. It's less dramatic than that of men who have been under heavy fire on a battlefield, but it hurts whenever it's triggered.

[Initech]

15. If this is anything like the Spanish flu...

One huge wave in March, another one in the fall, then a smaller one next March and that will be it. This thing is almost exactly following that pattern.

There was a lot of fallout from the Spanish flu that lasted years. But we will recover and be hopefully better than ever.

In that time we must do everything we can to take care of the essential workers.

[lambchopp59]

17. As a healhcare worker

Yes, but there will be lingering effects of loss and grieving to go around for practically everyone, and the idiots that are still pooh-poo-ing the pandemic, protesting, refusing to distance or wear PPE aren't helping matters one bit.
My biggest issue is how the losses of family members must occur in isolation-- it absolutely distresses me to no end seeing the family members unable to visit with the ill, the grief exacerbation like someone abducted and lost forever. It distresses me also to have to enter their rooms in so much garb and limit the exposure time and conversation. I try to put on a brave face and lift their spirits with some humor whenever appropriate with those aware.
At the end of the day, the increased workload and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and ad nauseum cleaning some more of every piece of equipment used on top of the stress of how terribly ill these patients become, I'm absolutely exhausted, then still have to bag my scrubs like radioactive plutonium, shower and stilll keep my distance from pets and loved ones.
This is my third day off from my 4-tens schedule. I was so tired at the end of this week I got very little done.
And again I'll state the stupidity of the protestors, the bravado of those not compliant with PPE use in public and I can't even look at that Orange Anus Mouth without nausea now aside from hearing it blather and spin vile, delusional fabrications. THAT's the mass PTSD we're all going to need extensive healing from once we rid of that idiot.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Not to worry. As we saw in 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq this country is EXCELLENT at ignoring

PTSD consequences, and blaming the victims.

[Locrian]

20. guaranteed

seems that something like a robust way to take care of them w/o adding stress would be a GREAT idea.
Something like, uh, I don't know... a national healthcare program or something....