You may be at a point in your life where you realize that you have been edgy, a bit depressed, feeling unsettled. Yet, everything in your life seems to be okay. You look for a cause, but you just can’t put your finger on it. Perhaps you should examine your recent past—six months ago, a year ago—and ask yourself, “What did I go through that was stressful at the time, yet I was able to deal with by suppressing my stress until that situation was over?”

“Aftershock” is a term coined by clinical psychologist Dr. Geri-Lynn Utter, who came to recognize this largely ignored scenario in many of her patients. As a subclinical level of the more familiar post-traumatic stress disorder, “aftershock” may underlie your present emotional stress, a delayed emotional response that affects many of us after common, yet big deal, life events such as miscarriage, moving to a new city, divorce, or, for some people, the Covid-19 pandemic that has rocked much of the world.