Why we should learn to accept the coronavirus craziness
LA TimesGrace Curran packs a takeout order for Deni Ershtukaev at Republique on La Brea, a restaurant that would normally be packed with dine-in customers. “If you sense that you don’t have a future, you don’t have hope,” she said. Vaile Wright, a director of clinical research at the American Psychological Assn., said that while we may not like this new reality we find ourselves in, we can learn to accept it as part of a process called “habituation.” Wright describes habituation as an adaptive quality “because your body recognizes it can’t stay in a heightened sense of arousal forever.” “You will start to adapt and it will become less arousing,” she said. “If you accept that this is how it is going to be for a period of time, then you can use your resources for self-care and taking care of people in your life,” she said. “On the one hand you can say, ‘I can’t get my job done with these little people in my house.’ Or you can say, “This is what it is, now how do I make this work.’” UCLA student Kiera Laney, 20, attends a class online in her dorm room on campus.