Global uncertainty in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic is real. Many people are still finding it difficult to embrace the new normal, myself included to a certain extent.
The change was sudden. Getting necessities has turned into our only interaction with the outside world, while simultaneously posing a health risk. However, as someone with treated anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I find myself weirdly adapting to coping strategies way better now. Perhaps, I have used up all of my accumulated worrying energy over the past years, or possibly, after years of therapy, I have learnt to compartmentalize my worries and deal with them accordingly, like asking for help and discussing how I feel.
By the time this is published, I would have seen my psychiatrist. I had a standard check-up that was pre-booked for yesterday (Friday) before the start of this pandemic, just to ensure that I am doing okay. This is something that took me years to say out loud.
The worries some of us may be feeling during this time will vary. Some will feel more pressured financially, socially or emotionally, or a mixture of all. Our circumstances are all different and most times we feel shame for our negative circumstances. My clinical therapist once told me that in moments of despair or great shame over our conditions, human behaviour can surprise you. People can offer the greatest sense of comfort because chances are others are going through the same thing but are afraid to speak too.
These trying times will be the ultimate test of our humanity and a chance for us to mend broken bridges. Because of our realities being different and complex this offers us an ample opportunity to use it to our advantage and benefit from it.
Reliable sources and pride
In an era of fake news, fact check everything and try to openly correct yourself if you are wrong. This is not the time for pride. Our inability to recognise such behaviour can seriously cause those who don’t have the same resources to research, to panic. We don’t know what their circumstances are.
Resource sharing and not shaming
While you could afford what your neighbour can’t, this is not to time to throw remarks at how people structured their lives prior to this and their inability to cope. Share where you can and offer tangible solutions. Now is the ideal time to buy seedlings if you have the space to plant and mini herbs pots if you don’t or offer them if you are in a privileged position. Be proactive.
A sense of community
People will be going through this alone and often overburdened by their repetitive thoughts and like I mentioned our needs during this time will vary radically. Human beings are social beings we need each other. Call elders (the most vulnerable group), call people who might be going through isolation alone, call people who you know have strained family relationships that may be further burdened by isolation.
As complex and ugly as this pandemic is, with the reality that many of us will not be able to survive it, I am hanging on to the advice of my therapist. Human behaviour can surprise us if we aren’t ashamed to say and act on how we truly feel. We all have some amount of good in us. Let us use it and perhaps openly processing this will help us get through as a community quicker than we think.
