A viral tweet claimed that exhaustion is a trauma response of "playing dead."

Which is just... not correct.

I'm addressing that and more in my latest piece on anticipatory grief. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/how-anticipatory-grief-may-show-up-during-the-covid-19-outbreak/

To specifically address the exhaustion we're feeling during this COVID-19 outbreak: when our fight, flight, or freeze is activated, the body actually floods us with stress hormones.

That over-activation, and our inability to "discharge" it, is what *actually* leads to fatigue.

If you're exhausted right now, no, your body is not "playing dead." Your body is actually *overexerting* itself right now in case it needs to respond to a threat.

When you're flooded with cortisol, your heart rate and blood pressure increase, your immune system is riled up, etc.

It's frustrating when I see folks tweeting things that are actually just... untrue, especially when it comes to trauma responses.

Your body isn't playing dead at all. It's actually working very fucking hard to prepare you for what's to come. That's why you're so freaking tired.

Some other things you might be feeling right now: HYPERVIGILANCE.

Your brain knows that there's a threat and it's working overtime to identify it. You're reacting every time the phone rings, someone sneezes, or a stranger isn't social distancing properly.

OVERWHELM is very common as well, "like 'freezing up' when faced with decision making or planning, or procrastinating more often to avoid complex tasks."

This is your brain trying to triage and focus only on the basics/necessities.

ANGER happens as a grief response as well.

"If small obstacles suddenly feel intolerable, you’re not alone. These obstacles often serve as unconscious reminders that things aren’t the same — triggering grief and a sense of loss, even when we aren’t aware of it."

RESIGNATION is also a part of anticipatory grief.

"[We] try to mentally and emotionally 'prepare' for the worst case scenario. If we pretend that it’s inevitable, we can trick ourselves into thinking it won’t feel so shocking or painful when it does come to that."

But that resignation can backfire too, because it just keeps us emotionally activated and triggered, which means we'll keep being bombarded with stress hormones as our body tries to keep us "prepared" for danger.

Which is why coping tools are so critical right now.

AVOIDANCE and WITHDRAWING are common grief responses too. We might think that distancing ourselves emotionally will protect us from the emotions of other people (folks with a history of codependency, fawning, caretaking, etc will be esp susceptible to this).

But isolation actually isn't good for our mental health! Avoidance is an understandable but not helpful reaction to this kind of collective trauma, FYI.

I unpack what anticipatory grief is, how it shows up, and most importantly, how to cope with it in the above article.

There's a lot of misinformation right now around the mental health impact and trauma of this outbreak. Hopefully this is helpful to you.