Just listening or reading about the difficulties so many people have faced in recent weeks can feel like an assault on the psyche. Then, you start to imagine what the people who are actually enduring these situations are feeling. For anyone with a heart, it hurts.

Dr. Edith Eva Eger, PhD, was a teenager when she and her family were uprooted from their home in Hungary and sent to Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi camp. Tragically, Edith’s parents did not survive, but Edith and her sister did.

Several years after being rescued from the brink of death, Edith married and moved to the US, where she earned a PhD in psychology, specializing in trauma. Since then she has worked with veterans, victims of physical and mental trauma, and more. She now has a clinical practice in La Jolla, California, and holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego.

After decades of experiencing survivor’s guilt herself, Dr. Eger eventually returned to Auschwitz and wrote about her experience in the New York Times bestseller, The Choice.

Now in her late nineties, the author of a new memoir entitled The Ballerina of Auschwitz is sharing her thoughts on peacefully coexisting with one another, even when conflict in the world is causing conflicts with the people we care about.

Find out how your favorite stars stay well when you subscribe to The Healthy by Reader’s Digest newsletter

The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: As a Holocaust survivor, you made it to the other side of one of the most exemplary humanitarian atrocities. So many of us feel that this election and the many world events right now are forcing us to stand fiercely by our personal values and humanistic beliefs.

From your personal and professional perspective, is ending a long-term relationship with someone who has differing views a worthy reason to end the relationship—say, even if they’re family?

Dr. Edith Eger: I, of course, hope that friends and family members can find ways to have enriching discussions that lead to more acceptance and understanding. Stopping the loving connection is a sad effect if that is the result.

The Healthy: Why do so many of us feel so much passion about this election, to the point where we feel strain in the relationships we have with loved ones who hold differing social, economic, and political views?

Dr. Edith Eger: The strain that we feel in our relationships is our attempt to allow tolerance and love to exist together. You can be you and I can be I, but together we are stronger than me alone or you alone. Regardless of social, economic, or political views, we can all coexist together.

The Healthy: We recently reported on signs it’s time to take a break from the news. When we want to stay informed, is it possible that consuming too much news be traumatic for the psyche?

Dr. Edith Eger: Even with our limitless access to updates about the world around us, it is important to remember that hope is always present, even in hopelessness. So, when we look at the news and begin to feel hopelessness, we must take a step back and search for hope because it is always there inside of us. A perspective that is technically informed but fundamentally hopeless, is not in fact, informed.

The Healthy: What’s the number-one coping tip you have for people who feel like they’re holding their breaths leading up to the election on November 5?

Dr. Edith Eger: Remember that discomfort is temporary. This is a critical skill I learned as I faced the atrocities of the Holocaust and one that still rings true today.

For more wellness updates, subscribe to The Healthy by Reader’s Digest newsletter and follow The Healthy on Facebook and Instagram. Keep reading: