I'm going to copy a post that a friend of mine made (with her permission). She's looking for resources on deescalation specifically for people who already struggle with anxiety. I can be of little help here but I know that a lot of my Mastodon followers are intimately familiar with depression/anxiety and I'm pretty sure several of you are librarians, so I'm posting her post here in the hope that I can relay back some advice. Post follows.

So has anyone out there working in public services found any resources for COVID argument de-escalation tactics meant for employees who are working with mental/emotional difficulties themselves?

Many of yinz probably already know that I’ve been in treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and major depression off and on since I was a teenager, but basically full time since 2012. (If not...well, hi.) My brain needs 24/7 pharmacological and psychological support structures to work right, and probably will for life. It slows me down, but I’ve learned to survive and often even thrive with it.

The point is, it’s a constant factor to take into account with daily activity. And with the library reopening to the public next week, it’s about to complicate some necessary things.

I’ve been completing every training on how to de-escalate difficult situations with patrons that I’ve come across. I’ve been cramming for this and can probably recite the procedures in my sleep: listen actively. Repeat back the concerns. Explain the policies and how they’re not personally directed. Communicate with empathy. Offer alternatives. Give them time and space to absorb and consider.

I can absolutely do all of these things. No performance anxiety there. Listening, empathy, trying to get to a good solution: those are things I already do in my job on a daily basis, and I know I’m good at them.

But. Before you get to that point, there are the other things. Don’t get upset. Don’t get anxious. You have to be the one to remain calm. Disengage your fight-or-flight response.

Those are things I frequently—and I’m saying this candidly from long experience with my own strengths and limitations—cannot do. I often cannot do these things in everyday life, much less high-stress situations. My body, on levels I’m unable to influence, has trouble telling the difference between a mildly stressful social interaction and a literally deadly threat.

It’s built into the structures of my brain. The treatment I undergo consists of finding ways around that, not fixing it.

Nothing I’ve watched or studied offers advice on how to work through this extra layer of challenge. Just don’t get upset. Don’t get anxious. You’ll be okay. Just keep your cool.

I’m tired of being reassured that I’m going to be okay. That’s not a given. I can’t depend on that the way that typically functioning brains can. People with asthma don’t get a guarantee that their lungs will get enough air that day. This is the same thing.

So please, if you all have come across any resources on advanced anxiety-dampening so I can be the calm one for not-calm people, so I can turn off the neurological processes that I’ve spent more than twenty years learning just to live alongside, please point them my way. We reopen in a week.

The extent to which I can perform my new necessary job duties is uncertain. I love my job but don’t know if I can do it while these duties are a part of it, and I’m really scared about that.