Ross: Protesting takes form of ‘healthy coping’ during pandemic

I was talking with a psychologist– Jonathan Kanter at the University of Washington – who’s been studying how the pandemic and the forced isolation is affecting mental health. And yes, sending money to unemployed people as Congress has done can certainly help.

“If we can help people with financial pressure and financial strain, we are also protecting against mental health problems for sure,” Kanter described.

But sometimes, money isn’t enough.

“Another form of coping right now for many people is to get out to protest and to fight,” he said.

The demonstrations are a form of what he calls “healthy coping.”

“Healthy coping doesn’t mean just feeling good emotions all the time,” Kanter noted. “Healthy coping means doing what your body is asking you to do — if somebody comes up to me and punches me in the face and then continues to threaten physical harm to me, healthy coping for me would be to fight back.”

So, are these demonstrations therapeutic for the people participating?

“Yeah, for many people, protesting is therapeutic,” Kanter answered. “And if your audience is mostly white people listening, then I do think one of the things we can do to support healthy coping is to let them know that we’ve got their back – join them in the fight.”

Jonathan Kanter is a clinical psychologist and director of the Center for the Science of Social Connection at the University of Washington.

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