live thursday at 8:00 a.m. eastern for a discussion of the bombings. then on sunday, watch american as we look back at how the bombings ended world war ii and their legacy and decades ahead. join the discussion with your calls, text, facebook questions, and tweets. watch the 75th anniversary of the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. arthur evans, ceo of the

american psychological association. joining us to talk about that association's latest survey, on stress in the time of covid-19. dr. evans, welcome to the program. guest: thank you, led to be here. host: this is -- glad to be here. host: tell us why you did this survey initially, and what you found different this time around. guest: we have done the stress 2017.rica survey since we know that stress is related to a lot of our physical outcomes as well as mental health outcomes. we have been tracking on that, and since the pandemic, we have how doing surveys to see our stress levels are being affected by this pandemic. host: the survey is available at apa.org.

into a numberlves of very current issues, including the aftermath of the killing of george floyd on may 12, the protests and the disturbances and unrest in cities across the country. tell us about that. guest: we did ask about that, and what we found is that about 60% of americans are concerned about racial discrimination, and have concerns about some of the reports around police brutality and communities of color, african americans in particular -- in communities of color, african americans in particular. african americans are feeling a significant amount of stress that has gone up over the past several months. we first asked that question back in may, about 42% of african-americans reported they were feeling stress related to racial dissemination. we have seen a steady increase, to about 67% of people reporting

that. finally, -- racial discrimination. we have seen a steady increase, to about six to 7% of people reporting that -- 67% of people reporting that. we also found that an equal proportion of people are hopeful that the protests and the attention being paid to this is going to lead to meaningful change. i should point out that about an equal proportion of people are also taking steps themselves to address racial injustice and inequality, and doing things like learning or having conversations. people are very engaged, generally on this issue. host: when you ask about stress, what are the most common manifestations people tell you about? guest: we look at it in two

ways. what are the things people are stressed about? how does that play out in people's lives? what we know is that there are a variety of things that are causing people stress, and that has changed somewhat as we have gone into the pandemic. generally speaking, economic stress is very prominent for people, and we have seen that during this pandemic. we see a lot of stress right now, related to concerns about contracting or getting the coronavirus. we are seeing stress related to the government's response to that. we are seeing stress related to people 1 -- wondering if people around them are taking appropriate preventative measures. all of those are things that we are seeing in people's concerns. host: our guest, dr. arthur

evans, with the american psychological association. we welcome your calls and comments. for those of you in the eastern and central time zones, it is (202)-748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202)-748-8001. for medical professionals, (202)-748-8002. published the signs of stress during the pandemic, during infectious disease outbreak, and they include fear and worry about your own health and the health of loved ones, changes in sleep or eating patterns, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, increased use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, the anxiety effects include physical symptoms, muscle tensions, headaches, emotional symptoms, irritability, frustration, fear, difficulty

concentrating, thoughts or worry and --atastrophize catastrophizing, ruminating. you are seeing a rise in all of these across the country? seeing ist we are that people's reported levels of stress is going up. we have seen some of that is coming down a little bit, as people get accustomed to the new normal. stress inifest their lots of different ways. the important thing is how we manage and mitigate stress, because we know that unmitigated stress can lead to a whole series of problems, cardiovascular problems, exacerbation of chronic health conditions, depression,, substance abuse -- depression, substance abuse. it is a main reason we do the

survey every year. the first is to recognize the level of stress that people are under, right now with the pandemic. we know that the level of uncertainty and the fear that people have, as a result is causing stress. when you add to that the economic downturn, and we know from years of psychological research that as the economy worsens, that there is more psychological distress. you add to that, the racial issues i was talking about earlier. all of those things are additive in terms of the impact that they have on people. it is important to take steps to manage that and mitigate that stress. your survey found that a portion of adults citing -- gettingving

coronavirus as a significant source of stress in the northeast but falling elsewhere. what we saw is what we are seeing is that as the infection rates go down in the northeast, the level of concern and stress related to getting the virus is going down, but in areas where we are seeing infection rates start to rise, there is more stress and concern about people getting the virus -- in concern about people getting the virus in those areas. host: the one common factor is unpredictability is causing stress across the aisle. the current amount of uncertainty in our nation causes me stress. 76% ofg to that, democrats surveyed, and 67% of republicans. you asked if the current

political climate is a significant source of stress. 77% of democrats agreed on that. 62% of republicans agreed on that. is that much different from earlier in the survey? guest: it is. we see these political differences on these issues, consistently. there is one other area, that i thought was very interesting. we asked the question about -- how people felt that people felt about the preventative measures, we have been asked to do, and particular physical distancing and wearing a mask -- in particular wearing -- physical distancing and wearing a mask. there are differences in terms of the proportions. 88% of republicans -- of democrats think those kinds of preventative measures are very

ofortant, whereas about 65% republicans feel the same way. two important points here. one is that a majority of people believe these things are important. that there is a big political divide, and terms of people's willingness to engage in those kinds of preventative activities, at least a majority of both parties think that is important, but there are still these differences based on political affiliation. host: we will get to your phone calls. eastern and central time zones, (202)-748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202)-748-8001. bernadette is first up, in new mexico. caller: good morning, everyone. the reason i am calling is i do live in new mexico, and the

mental health issue is rampant here. people are being referred for mental health, and then the mental health professionals go ahead and prescribe psychotic drugs that make the matters worse. some people don't need this, and yet everywhere you turn, somebody says that person needs mental help. all of a sudden, there is a gestapo around here recommending everyone go to a psychologist, when in reality, the psychologists themselves don't know what they are doing, because they don't take the time to figure out that some person might be on heart medication, and they don't understand the effects of prescribing a psychotic drug will have the effect with the heart medication. well, i think the caller

is saying a few important things. she is recognizing that people are experiencing a lot of distress. that is consistent with our survey. but i do think it is important that when people are at the point when they are no longer capable of managing the level of stress they are experiencing that they do seek out professional help. the point about sitting down and talking and trying to understand what is going on with someone is very important. that is one of the hallmarks of good mental health care, the people are being listened to, issues are being understood, and the type of treatment that is isng employed with people really consistent with what the needs are of the person. i will say that one of the silvers, or one of the linings in all of this in terms of mental health is that there is increased use of telehealth

so that people don't have to physically go into a physician's office or a mental health center. they can actually get that care at home. what i would really encourage people is if they are experiencing psychological distress, if they feel they are at a point when they can no longer manage themselves without professional help, that they reach out for help. call your insurance company, get someone in your network. if you are uninsured, your state government always has a way of covering services for people who are uninsured. there really is no reason that, if you are experiencing mental health challenges, for you not to get help, and given the increased use of telehealth, there's no reason that even if you can't physically get there that you can't receive those services. host: we will go to stephen in pennsylvania. caller: good morning.

i have been working since before the pandemic was announced to the american public. i listen to different radio programs that came out of radio free china. hong kong went off the air. everybody was wondering what was going on over there. what i have noticed since i have been working with all of my colleagues, there's about 150 of us. we come from many different backgrounds. we noticed that the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic is ramping up the fear of every u.s. citizen in the country. the mediaget beyond and the politicians and actually tackle the coronavirus where the pandemic is, where people are being affected by it -- my wife and i recently went camping in midwestern pennsylvania.

i walked into a gas station to get a cup of coffee for both of us late at night, and i was surprised no one in the middle of pennsylvania is wearing masks or protection. the man behind the counter says, sir, we don't have to wear that out here. we are tired of being told what to do and what to fear. there are numbers out there in that county that were so low, it was unbelievable. like going through a twilight zone period from harrisburg to the middle of the country -- of pennsylvania. but i would like to know is, why do we shut down all the borders going from state to state, let alone up to canada? in the area of canada where i vacation along the st. lawrence river, they have the lowest covid rates possible. they are in southern ontario. they are allowed to take hydrochloric when or whatever that drug that hydrochloric queen -- they are like to take

-- they are allowed to take quine -- they are allowed to take hydrochloriquine. host: you put several points out there. guest: one of the things that is really important is that we follow the data, that we listen that we allow, the strategies we are going to employ for a particular community to be driven by what the data say. i think that was the point the caller was making. host: on twitter, is similar point. "downplaying the virus, downplaying masks while vilifying officials trying to reduce the spread, all playing .n a motion -- on emotion

leadership would citizens ahead of personal emotions." mark next in glendale, west virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. the vast majority of people that are dying, not talking about very elderly people in nursing homes, younger people who might otherwise be healthy, are dying because they experience --, which causes your lungs to fill up with fluid. it is actually kind of rare. that is why you almost never see 18, iseople under extremely rare for them to die. however, this has to do with what the psychologist is talking about, the effects of chronic that all of us, not just

the pandemic, but the rioting and everything that is going on, that actually increases tremendously. that this is actually more of a factor in a lot of young people's death than the actual virus itself. host: ok, mark. guest: i can't speak to that specific thing the color was talking about, but we absolutely know that stress affects --ple's physical help physical health. we have to make sure we are paying as much attention to our mentor health as we are our

mentor health -- to our physical health as we are our mental health. 1 cap person -- host: that gettingyoung people not the virus is much as older people. , researchut that shows that adolescents, loosely arened from 14 to 26 years, biologically driven to seek new experiences. when children are born, their brains aren't fully formed. the brain creates a large amount of synapses, or neural links between cells. during adolescence, these get cut back or pruned. the brain illuminates the connections that aren't important. one way the brain germans what is important or not is through real-world -- brain determines what is important or not is through real-world experiences.

at the same time, dopamine levels reach a lifetime peak in , and rewards -- and supports were board driven -- and supports were board driven learning, which drives them to value e media gratification, which can lead to risky decisions -- value immediate gratification, which can lead to risky decisions. guest: we know that decision-making is affected all adulthood,ough young so we know that people are still developing. but the point of a lot of the behavior around people taking risks are being influenced by a number of things. we know that social norms are very important. what are people doing in your community and in your peer group

? it affects the decisions people make, the information that verye are getting is important. one thing that has come up today is our political leadership is very divided, and the information that is given and how it is portrayed, some of the preventative measures that people need to take. so we have a very volatile environment in which the information people are getting, the sources of that information, the kind of behaviors people are engaging in are really all over the place. i think it is very difficult for people to manage through that, particularly when they are not fully developed in terms of their decision-making ability. host: we are talking about mental health and stress during the pandemic. our phone lines are (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and

central time zones, and (202) 748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. a question for you from sue in new jersey. "my observation during the pandemic is people have made some remarkable behavior changes to slow the spread of covid-19, but i worry about the economy. loss of jobs, reduce hours, unresolved unemployment claims, etc. how should people cope with that?" guest: we are at the point in this pandemic where we really have to start thinking about the long-term impact. the reality is in the very beginning of this, we were in crisis mode. people were making all kind of adjustments. but it is pretty clear to people now that we are going to be in this for months, if not a couple of years at least, as we get through finding a vaccine and getting people to use that, and the infection rate starting to go down in the spread starting to wane.

so we are going to be in this for a while. howreal challenge for us is do we continue to take the preventative measures that we simultaneouslyd do the things that we need to do to make sure that the economy along, that go people still have a way of having a livelihood. so we have to adjust to a new normal, and i think reframing how we think about this, from this crisis to a marathon, and readjusting our lives for that marathon is going to be important. that means figuring out how are we going to engage in the economy over the long run because we can't stay completely isolated over the next year or two as we wait for a vaccine. so it is part of the challenge we have. i think a lot of people are

experiencing decision fatigue because we have so many decisions we have to make. do we send our children back to school? do we shop or order our groceries? there are so many decisions we have to answer right now, and we really have to organize our lives around the long-term changes that we see here. decisions isthose whether or how the family can gather together. book the washington post" writing about -- "the washington post" writing about that this morning. "across the country, families are facing front decisions and fierce disagreements on whether or not to see each other this summer. from california to chicago to charlotte, family gatherings of all kinds have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks that have second scores of people. on, itthe pandemic drags is testing resolve to remain

apart. summer reunions offer a preview of what could happen later this year, when americans celebrate their first thanksgiving and christmas since the pandemic's start. it has been especially difficult forever can american families, for whom large summer reunions are important rituals, given extra urgency from the national reckoning on racism. black families have also been dispersion lee affected by the pendant -- have been disproportionately affected by have beent. -- disproportionately effected by the pandemic." guest: it is important to have this discussion around the criteria that are going to be used and the values that drive those decisions. if the decisions are really being driven by we are going to do every thing we can to make virus, are safe from the that is going to lead you down a certain pathway in terms of how you make those decisions. if your values are such that it

is important, and you have concerns about social isolation and the importance of family connection, it will lead you down a different pathway potentially. arewhatever those criteria that are driving your decision-making, it is really important to have those conversations and to really do everything you can to keep your family safe. i know some families are doing everyoneke making sure that is coming to the gathering gets tested and that they quarantine themselves before they gather, so they have some assurances that they are not going to get exposed to the virus during their gathering. those kinds of things really .llow people to accomplish both protect themselves, but also make sure they are not unwittingly spreading the virus

in their family gatherings. but it is important for people to have those conversations interdict the best steps that they can, given the situation they are in. host: we go to beaulah in tennessee. caller: good morning to you. stay safe and wash her hands. -- and wash your hands. but related to the family gatherings, my nine brothers and sisters, down to great great grandchildren, we always have a because --athering big family gathering because this is what our mother asked us to do before she passed. this is the discussion we are having right now, how we are going to do this in order to continue to keep the tradition that we have been doing since i can remember. students with the going into the classroom, and then somebody becomes infected

and they are out of the classroom, i heard yesterday that one school system was having two days in and three days out, what kind of mental effect does that have on the looking, as well as like a prison for the schools i have seen? they have on a mask, and it doesn't seem like a happy place. i know that has a kind of middle situation on them -- kind of mental situation on them. you can have ptsd as a result of all of the things happening. i thick i've become agoura phobic -- become agoraphobic because i don't like to go out at all, even to pick up the mail. host: appreciate your call. guest: i will into the first question first. i think it is important to keep these decisions in perspective. even if you have been doing family reunions for 20, 50, 70

years, this is an extraordinary period. this is a once in a hundred year pandemic we are experiencing. i think the question has to always be what is going to keep your family safe. unfortunately, as you noted in your comments, a lot of the infections that people are getting are coming from family gatherings. not having that this year or maybe a couple of years to keep people safe, versus running the risk of people becoming infected with the virus, how do you way that? i think ultimately, people err on the side of what do we have to do to make sure that we keep people safe. in terms of children, the point you are making about the long-term impact on children,

yes, that is a concern. we know that children are going through important element to milestones -- important , andopment on milestones that is really important. before my mother passed away and i was living in connecticut, my mother saw me writing something. my mother was a schoolteacher, so she was always looking at the things that we wrote and so forth. oh, your handwriting is so bad. she reminded me that when i was in the third grade, my teacher had been out of school for a number of months, and that i have sort of missed a lot of important instruction on how to write in cursive. us that these development milestones are really important.

but here is the other things. resilient, so even though i have horrible handwriting, and all of my family will tell you that, i still got a phd. i have a great life. i have a great family. there are ways to be compensated. so i think it is important for us to understand these things that our children might be missing now are important, and they may have a long-term impact, but generally speaking, we are able to bounce back from that. we are able to compensate for that. we know from research for example with military children, military children have a lot of disruptions in their education because they are moving around a lot. but if you look at how those children do over the long term, they actually do quite well. i come from a military family. the first six years of my life, we moved acre times -- moved

four times. we were able to come and say, but it is important for communities where children come from families that have lower resources and lower community the multiplying effect of all of those things are things that we have to pay attention to as a society to make sure we are compensating because in those situations, those missing lots of developmental milestones can be very problematic for children in the long term. that is why it is so important. host: a quick text from connie in tacoma, washington. "i encourage people going through mental stress to call their state or county crisis for .ocal resources the national alliance on mental illness also has good resources." jody is next in michigan. caller: yes, hi.

my question is regarding the previous pandemic of 1917 to 1918. have they ever done any studies on how that affected the population, or what the outcomes were in the following years on the whole human being? the other part was just, is there something that does get developed when a population goes through a pandemic like this? is it, as referred, resilience? is there something on the positive end of that, going through something as dramatic as this? i will take my answer off. thank you. guest: that is a good question. i actually don't know about looking at the mental health pandemic, the 1918 but right now, there's a lot of through theng on national institutes of health

and other entities, so we are going to have a pretty good handle on how this pandemic is playing out and what some of the psychological consequences of this pandemic are over the next several years. there's some really good research happening now tracking what is happening in real time. the other thing is the american psychological association is talking every week to our colleagues from around the world, including colleagues from africa,d from asia, north america, south america. we are comparing notes about what is happening around the world in terms of the impact. when we talk to our colleagues in china, one of the things they talked about is the cognitive and mental health impact of

actually having the virus, not just being in the pandemic with all of the stressors. there are a lot of mental health issues for people who actually have the virus. there hasn't been as much discussion about that, but that is something we are also going to have to look at. your point about are there strengths isan be a really good question. one of the things we tend to focus on are all of the negatives that happen as a result of the stressors we have been talking about, but we also ,now from research on recovery particularly from substance use conditions, that people actually can develop ways of compensating that create strengths that people might not otherwise have had they gone through this. throughhey not gone this. so we expect that there are

going to be strengths that people develop because of their need to deal with many of the situations they are in now that will be long-term life strengths. i suspect that many of the young people graduating or have had to make the adjustment to their graduation, those kind of things, are going to turn out to be pretty remarkable young people because they have gone through this. i think we should be looking at that as much as we are looking at some of the long-term consequences, negative consequences about the pandemic. host: to brooklyn next. samuel is on the line. caller: the morning. thank you for taking my call. let me ask you this. i am jewish. i have eight children. they are not going to school. they will stay home. dangerous.is

you would think it is normal with schools closed -- guest: i'm not sure if i quite got the question. no, it is not normal. that is why parents have to do what they can to make a decision. earlier aboutg situations or different in different communities. infection rates are different in different communities. the resources people have come of the resources that families have are different. to how we one answer should respond around these things. each community, each family is going to have to make those decisions based on their unique situation. good morning to ned. 8 caller: good morning -- caller: good morning. i've got two things. i live in a very rural place.

mental health is pretty nonexistent. what i can tell you is the saw -- i am at essential worker, so i am able to travel around, but the lockdown. after about four weeks, you could notice that mental health declines for a lot of people from the impact of the lockdowns. i am gettingng is to a point in my career where i don't want to keep doing this. it will break my body down. i've had mental health issues of my own in the past. now,n see the impact of it and you can see it on the street. possibly iing about could pursue the career myself.

it after iested in went through my own crisis. obviously there's a major shortage of psychiatrists across the country. education.he whole is it getting more affordable to go through and not in up -- not end up in six digits of debt to get the career to come back to my community? host: we will get a response. thank you. guest: i am glad you have interest in a career in mental health. i think we need more people. i will give you a couple of suggestions in terms of how to make it affordable because it can be quite expensive, depending on what level you get to. i would strongly suggest community college.

started ind, but i community college. i went to allstate schools. -- went to all state schools. i didn't really have any debt to speak of. it is harder to do that today, .ut it is still possible if you are not interested in pursuing a phd or other graduate emerginghere is this specialist,pierce people with lived experiences that have actually had mental health challenges themselves who get some additional training, and they are not trained to be physicians, but what they are trained to do is walk beside mentalexperiencing

health challenges. very effective in terms of helping people to engage, giving people hope, inspiring people, encouraging people as they walk through the recovery process. that is a very fulfilling role for people. if you don't want to go through the formal educational route, there are different roles you can play that people have found very fulfilling and that are very important for the mental health systems. host: one more call from george in hudson, florida. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: fine, thanks. caller: that's good. i've had a problem with some of these people that have been saying on tv -- that i have seen on tv that seem like they are losing it. , what dong to ask you you think the diagnosis would be for nancy pelosi? she's obviously offer not -- obviously off her nut.

host: let me end with perhaps the headline we didn't talk about in the time of covid-19 survey. i guess the good news this time around is the average stress level has dropped to 5% from 5.2%. did that surprise you at all? guest: it did because we have a lot of other data right now showing that people are experiencing more psychological symptoms. there are a number of surveys that have been done around the world showing that there is an increase in the number of people reporting psychological symptoms. but there is a piece of this , as peopleake sense have gotten more accustomed to to the new normal and people are making adjustments. so the data actually went from

5.4 to 5.225 in terms of how tople -- from 5.4% to 5.2% 5.0% as people have become four accustomed to this new reality, and in some ways, they are experiencing less stress as a result. doesn't surprise us somewhat, but it does make sense in that context. if you look at how people are , it is verylly clear that people are experiencing significant amounts of stress, and what we need to do as a nation is pay as much attention to this because it is more people than just the virus, and we know that the consequences long-term can be quite significant.

so i would like to see more of our leaders talk about taking and makingmselves sure that we are socially connected, which is important. making sure that we are being very intentional about doing that are -- when we get into the survival mode of making sure we are getting through the day, we sort of villa mate all of those things that we get a lot of joy and satisfaction in, and it is really important to be intentional about making sure we continue to do those things. we have to make adjustments, but it is import to keep those things there. finally, i think it is really important for us to reframe issues. we know from psychological research that seeing the glass

half-full is very important of how we see our situation, our feelings of anxiety or depression. issues as much as possible seeing the positive. you have a job, and there are many people who don't have a job. seeing things through that lens can also be a really important way of helping me to get the stress we are seeing. survey is at apa.org. >> every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day to discuss policy issues that impact you. wednesday morning, the former labor secretary will join us to

talk about job loss and the health of the overall economy in the pandemic. voting byerns about mail and this year's elections. watch live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. and be sure to join the discussion. >> this week, to hearings before the senate. yates, they, sally former acting attorney general, testifies on the russia investigation. then on thursday, at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the acting secretary for the homeland security testifies on the deployment of personnel to protest and unrest across the country. or listen live on the free c-span app. this week marks the 75th

anniversary of the atomic bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki. watch washington journal live there is day -- thursday for andussion with an author the grandson of harry truman. then on sunday, watch american history tv as we look back at how the bombings ended world war in decadesr legacy ahead. join the discussion with your calls, texts, facebook questions, and tweets. watch the 70 for the anniversary of the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki.