Link: elemental.medium.com/your-surg… Author: Tara Haelle Time to read: 15 mins.

Another article that prompts reflection on how we’ve coped during the pandemic. It introduced me to a handful of concepts, including surge capacity and ambiguous loss.

Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely.

“The pandemic has demonstrated both what we can do with surge capacity and the limits of surge capacity,” says Masten. When it’s depleted, it has to be renewed. But what happens when you struggle to renew it because the emergency phase has now become chronic?

It concludes with some good points to help as we continue to navigate an uncertain future.

#favourite #pandemic #psychology