And i know that during times of isolation, it can get a little bit worse. These times in particular are both unprecedented and incredibly challenging. I want to let you know it is okay to not be okay. We all need to come together to cope with the stress and to prevent a second epidemic of what can happen if we dont address the stress and trauma. We can overcome it. Weve got what it takes to get through this. Clouds cant last forever. They cant and they wont. Thats not how the atmosphere works and thats not how life works. Abc7 presents your Mental Health. A bay area conversation. Im so glad you made it to us today. This special edition of abc7 news. Im reggie aqui along with kate larsen. Instead of our regular 4 00 p. M. Newscast, were going spend an hour engaging experts and you in this abc7 listens vtu tn ha the issue, our Mental Health. And kate, were asking today how you, because even if the answer isnt great, thats what were diving into. Thats what were here to talk about, reggie, absolutely. This is an important onehour virtual town hall airing on tv on abc7news. Com, youtube, and facebook. Over the next hour, were going have a frank conversation with an amazing panel of experts and questions hopefully from all of you watching us now. Now all of the issues we talk about when it comes to the pandemic health, jobs and the economy, the workplace, education, racial inequities are all taking a toll on our individual and collective Mental Health. The change is creating uncertainty thats manifesting as stress, anxiety and depression. Take a walk down any street and every person you see covered by a mask, distanced from their friends and family has a story about their struggle with a new mental work load. Im just im tired of worrying. Katie is concerned about her parents health. Theyre in their 80s and theyre stranded in florida right now. The shelter in place has left ayana and rodney without work with three kids at home. Stressed. Just trying to keep my head up, really. People who still have jobs are worried about losing them. It does concern me if theyre going to eventually permanntly lay us off. Students are stressed about Virtual Learning and how long it will continue. Youre alone. You dont have study groups. Im a little stressed about the fall and not being able to go back. Everyone has experienced extraordinary amount of stress at this time thats really unprecedented. Dr. Lisa fortuna is chief of psychiatry at Zuckerberg San Francisco general hospital. First the viral transmission surge and then the Mental Health surge. We are getting ready for that in psychiatry. She has been on the ground after disasters like hurricanes when there is an acute need for psychiatric help. But she says the pandemic is different. I think the thing thats made this so complicated is the social distancing. A big factor for Health Care Work owners the front line as well as people isolated at home. Some days ive had loneliness. David lives in san lorenzo. Ive had a few anxiety attacks. Ive been struggling with it since the shelter in place, not able to see family and friends. Brandon rice is an icu nurse in San Francisco. How you doing as a nurse treating really critically ill patients. Right now im doing okay. Because of the things that i have engaged in such as therapy, speaking about my anxiety, being vulnerable. When family members cant see their loved one because of covid19, how does it make you feel to have to communicate that type of live critical information to family members over the phone . Anxiety and stress. And then there are people whose lives have been upended by the Health Crisis itself. We were having a normal life, and then all of the sudden my husband was in the hospital with a 10 chance of making the night. Her husband was intubated at San Francisco general. His family could not visit. It was really sad because the nurses would just make facetime calls, but its not really the same. He couldnt talk. He couldnt do anything. Her husband does not have covid and is now at home with a feeding tube. But because he cant risk a viral infection, she cant work or get outside help. So she is isolating at home to take care of her three kids and husband. Ive never in my life felt anxiety or panic attacks until now. It was hard. Its still hard. It is were taking it day by day. And i do know alinka who you heard from personally. She is so strong, and im so impressed by her resilience and the resilience of so many people who i met and interviewed over the past few months. Even though so many people are in really difficult positions right now, people are also motived to do what it takes to get better and to feel better and reggie, i do know that our panel of experts have some great ideas about how we can all accomplish that. Yeah, were definitely going to get to some practical ways that we can all cope right now. Lets introduce our panel. Weve put together an Impressive Group zooming in today. Dr. Andrew huberman, stanford professor and neuroscientist. Dr. Christine garcia, a family psychiatrist with the Edgwood Center. Dr. Alok patel, our good friend, abc news special correspondent, and geriatric psychiatrist and open house executive director. Thank you all for being here. I want to start by talking about defining the problem. Kaiser Family Foundations did a survey. They found that just about half of americans report that coronavirus is harming our Mental Health. A study that was done by online Therapy Company talk space looked at its numbers. They saw 65 jump in clients needing them. 40 of people saying that their Mental Health has declined category sap, who interviewed a bunch of people who are still working right now. I want to start with dr. Christine garcia. You work especially with families and children, and i want to know how youre finding the problem right now. Well, at edgwood, were really defining the problem as quite broadly and as an oncoming tsunami, actually. You know, in the past few months, weve seen a lot of phone calls and a lot of people calling our crisis stabilization unit. This is a unit thats essentially like a psychiatric emergency room but for children and families. And trauma informed. And we really do try to provide a very healing environment for people coming in with all sorts of crises. And we define crises very broadly, meaning that anyone can come in who is experiencing a child in their family thats really not at their best. And weve experienced a lot of calls and contacts about what to do for kids who are struggling under the social distancing that weve had the do with School Shutdown and with family members getting sick this includes frontline medical workers who are out there and also getting sick and suffering the psychological impact of treating so many people. So were really seeing an oncoming onslaught of more kids, families really impacted by covid because of how great the spread is of the virus and then what that does to people including their losing jobs, losing homes, schools being shut down and teachers not being able to really provide structure for kids that they really rely on. And kids just being home with families all day, all night. I think were all struggling on some level with that. Sometimes in very small space, depending where you live. Thats right. Dr. Patel, youre the first person i had a conversation with coronavirus with in the studio back when this parallel pandemic were talking about, the Mental Health pandemic wasnt even on our radar. That was part of the problem. We werent necessarily preparing for this. We werent. And when we were in the studio together, that feels like a generation ago, and it wasnt that long ago. I think this all caught us off guard, but it makes so much sense. We were so focused on the virus itself, the data of epidemiology. And this has almost turned into the hidden pandemic within the other pandemic that i think everyone else on the panel can agree with that statement. One thing were really seeing right now is while coronavirus itself doesnt discriminate based on socioeconomic group or backgrounds, your religion, your culture, anything. It will infect anyone. So will the Mental Illnesses associated with it as well. You know, weve already talked about the fact that children are isolated. Parents are juggling multiple jobs. Some parents are losing their jobs. People themselves are experiencing feelings of loneliness. There is a lot of fear and anxiety out there. If i can speak on behalf of my colleagues in hospitals and looking at previous reports from sars, ebola, other medical crises, medical personnel now are seeing this in a way that is unprecedented. There is a fear of getting sick. There is a fear of losing patients. Theyre experiencing patient loss at an unprecedented level. And there is almost a moral injury adding to the burnout that all the people on the front line are experiencing when they want to do the best they can for their patients, but because of the volumes they see and the lack of protective equipment, they sometimes cant. And were seeing that take a huge toll. We already saw a couple of suicides. Im hearing a lot more reports out there. Not only in america, but all over the world of frontline providers experiencing a mental toll here. And it is something we need to be proactive about so three months ago were not talking about this and saying we missed anything. I know you talk about having compassion but in a very specific way. You talk about the emotional contagion that is happening in our homes right now tell me a little bit about what that means. So im not a clinician, im a laboratory scientist, and we study the stress response, but also how people can move through stress and actually suppress it when they need to suppress it, accept it when they need to accept it and leverage it when they need to be more functional. One thing we know based on science from many good laboratories is you need to think not just about the stress response of the individual, but how stress spreads between individuals. Families and small groups and in large groups, and as a population at large. You know, we hear these phrases like, you know, calm is contagious. And indeed, it is. And stress is contagious, and indeed it can be. But my perspective really in the scientific perspective is to say well, why is that so . How does that work . And what can we do to promote calm, because what we know for certain is that while stress is a healthy response that everyone is going to experience from time to time, that we always make the best decision, including decisions about Mental Health from a place of calm. And i think that right now there is this heightened sense of destabilization and stress and in addition to that fear, which comes with uncertainty. And we really immediate to think not just how were behaving and acting, but how were impacting others. Sometimes that can compound the problem when we realize were stressed and were spreading stress that creates a heightened what i call meta stress. Today i know were looking forward as a group discussing some of the things we can do as individuals, what we can do in communication with our children, other loved ones and in general as a society right now because this is an extremely important problem. Right. And we will get to some of the specific ways that you hopefully will calm our nerves a little bit as we move through this conversation. I want to quickly before we go to break talk to the doctor. Your Organization Works with the senior population. And we have been very concerned about the population were facing. Yeah. So open house is an organization that serves lgbtq seniors and they experience a lot of the same issues that other seniors experience, but often at a heightened level, particularly around the world isolation. So this is something anyone in Senior Services is thinking about all the time because we have seniors experiencing isolation and feeling invisible from their community, even going into this crisis. So in some ways, this isnt new, but its a new level and a new intensity to a problem that existed before. There is a lot of Good Research showing that loneliness is actually a stronger predictor of mortality than a lot of physical Health Conditions that we think about. So lgbtq seniors are less likely to have biological children or a absolutely family, which means their support system is often made up of sameage peers. And that means everybody is a part of that vulnerable population right now who is most at risk to covid and being told to stay home. So weve got isolation upon isolation upon isolation risk factors kind of stacking up and people really struggling to feel connected to their community which is their family of choice and where they feel love. Understood. Okay. So we have all talked to you now about what the problem looks like as we head into this. Were going to seek some solutions in just a moment. We are going to take a short break. But our conversation with the panel will continue. And later, a frank discussion with Good Morning Americas ginger zee and broadway star patpy mirren. Thank you. We want you to please join the conversation with us. Youre part of this abc listens town hall too. Go to facebook or youtube to weigh in or interact with todays virtual town hall. Youre on it. Exercising often and eating healthy . Yup, on it there too. You may think youre doing all you can to manage type 2 diabetes and heart disease. But could your medication do more to lower your heart risk . Jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. So, it could help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. And it lowers a1c. Jardiance can cause serious side effects or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. Ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. A rare, but lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction ando it if you have symptoms of this if youre on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack . On it with jardiance. Ask your doctor about jardiance. On it with jardiance. Z3w6kz z1s6z y3w6ky y1s6y we also know that these symptoms persist for years to come, even once quarantine is lifted. The data tell us that when the lives of adult, children and families are drastically changed for extended lengths of time, for many, anxiety, depression and stress disorders will wl pe. And that was dr. Ellie mccancekatz, assistant secretary for Mental Health and substance abuse, speaking at the white house earlier this week. This is Something Interesting i just read from dr. Huberman today. I saw this article you wrote, dr. Huberman, a navy s. E. A. L. You were comparing the experience of all of us going through this covid19 experience with being stuck in a very small submarine, and what navy s. E. A. L. S go through, the trauma they actually experience by being in that small sometimes seemingly hopeless experience. Can you tell me about how those folks get over it . Sure. So my coauthor on that article was a gentleman by the name of pat dawson who spent nine years on the s. E. A. L. Teams, a close friend and colleague of mine. I do some work with special Operations Community separate from the work with path, but nonetheless, those communities became of interest to me in my lab for the following reason. They deal with high stress, high consequence, high risk situations with a high degree of uncertainty. And really, a distinguishing feature that people need to understand is there is no real clear boundary between anxiety, stress, fear and trauma. But what we know, as there is more uncertainty, anxiety and stress starts to transition into fear. And when were uncertain about how often fears are going to surface in us, then it starts to transition into what we might call trauma or ptsd. In that article we highlighted three things that special operations folks do in order to move through environments of high stress, high consequence that are really life or death with a lot of uncertainty. The first one is whats called moving the horizon. It seems a little counterintuitive, but the ability to focus on a goal that is very close in and within reach. It could seem almost trivial, like making a cup of coffee or saying good morning to somebody that you work with or a spouse. Setting a small goal thats actionable and that you can complete and really putting as much of your focus and attention on that as possible we believe absorbs a certain amount of the brains capacity for a need to focus and can relieve some of the anxiety simply by setting tangible actionable goals that move you through your day. This is critical, especially in this time of quarantines. And we dont know whats coming next, of course. So even as we move out of our homes a little more in the weeks to come, setting these horizon disease be very important. This isnt just something that special operations do. Surgeons do this. Lots of First Responders do. This but we can all learn something from what these impressive communities do in terms of moving the horizon. We all have control over these things. The other one that we talked about was and that these communities do which is a little bit counterintuitive, when youre feeling stressed, to really focus on the needs of somebody else. We think weve got take care of ourselves first, put our oxygen mask on first, so to speak, and that is true. If youre in a heightened state of stress or panic, you need to deal with that first. Oftentimes our anxiety comes from the fact that the brain can focus internally. It can focus externally or both. Sometimes focusing externally on the needs of others or even just doing things without being asked, there is the thing actually in the s. E. A. L. Team community they say act, dont ask. They mean that in a positive way where you just do something for somebody in order to assist the group. And its a risin risin risin rin all b