*Image credit: Mark Rourke/AP Photo
By Waiching
There is no disputing that fear-driven behaviours have intensified and are heightening the Coronavirus panic most people are feeling right as of this moment. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that has alarmingly manifested, as well as infiltrated nearly every heart and every fibre with its excess of apprehension and uneasiness. The world, as we know it, is well aware of the devastating losses this pandemic has had: from physical death, mental illness, poverty to economic & financial devastation.
At its base, trauma inflames and engulfs us by seizing and taking away our power and our regularity and familiarity, slithering away our sense of control. It leaves us on the edge of uncertainty after depriving us of such freedoms: some of these of which we have been endowed with and gotten so used to in the past, in pretty much the same way, the aftereffects of this global pandemic are reverberating around us, robbing us from a sense of security & fulfilment.
Everything feels new, unbelievable and overwhelming; several months on, most of us are still getting to grips with what has been happening, it is still hard to fathom. It feels like we are part of a Hollywood blockbuster movie.
Hope has been and was a way of believing and accepting that, for the most part, the best times were and are yet to come, no matter how dire a situation was and how big the crisis is. That society will heal, that we will heal from this, that this will be short-lived. Yet the trauma of the coronavirus and the vast scale and rate in which it has escalated and mutated has robbed us from some of that hope and thus forth left us with a glaring aftertaste of calamity and fear instead. It has cultivated widespread and inescapable grief on so many levels and one that hasn't been seen before in recent years, but one which is difficult to pin down and at times absorb.
Our grief goes beyond death that has been experienced and the reported numbers of people who have lost their lives has also been felt: it is also the loss of family time and social gatherings, the loss of consoling and hugging our friends and loved ones, losing the sense of wonder and curiosity in exploring different cultures and cultural experiences in travel, & thus scuppering any major plans that we had in doing so. The so-called things we often take for granted, and in hindsight, these have now taken on more profound meaning and in recognising how important they are to us.
We are constantly bombarded with reports of a second wave of COVID-19 hitting various countries, of mounting deaths, changing government lockdown guidelines and the fear that things will never get back to normal. Things will never go back to what they were before all of this happened, once we come out of this crisis at first, and whilst there is talk that COVID-19 will change our lives and society forever, the question people will ask is whether this world-changing catastrophe and the sheer magnitude it has had, will make us fairer, more open, accepting and caring as a society and being more compassionate as individuals in the long run for many years.
On the evidence of what I have experienced, from an essential worker standpoint at least, I doubt it will. Based on the people I work with and talk to, most haven't changed, most of them are still the same persons as they were before COVID-19 hit; some are still (being) difficult, whilst others they are just their usual selves. That, and many other people will try to hold their heads above water just trying to get by and survive to earn a living, whilst many will be so gravely affected by all of this, they don't see any impending good to come out of it.
The mundane tasks which are undertaken at home, as well as at work as an essential worker have not only reached (a) tipping point: they become almighty efforts in our race to stay alive, but often at the possible cost and expense of our mental health and the risks of getting infected. For some, including myself, the journey hasn't been without its challenges, its cons as well as pros; it has been a mental battle & arriving home at the end of after each shift, either feeling satisfied, happy or tired or unhappy. The Coronavirus has ensued in changes to how we live & go about our lives both at work and home, but some of those changes, in the behavioural sense, such as social distancing, the wearing of masks and limiting physical contact, in order to minimise the risk of contamination, has immensely impacted us in ways in which we hadn't anticipated before.
Many people are expecting the worst, with intense feelings of edginess, irritation and worry playing in the back of their minds, suddenly questioning how, what, when and why.
Regardless, it is the powerful lessons we must learn, heed and take from this as of this present time, and following after COVID-19, once we do get out of this and try to move on, along with a vaccine that will empower us to do better for ourselves and to become more caring and better people by strengthening our relationships with those closest to us and to heal and move on from a predicament that, quite honestly, has shocked us to the very core of our emotions, feelings and human values that many of us try to uphold for ourselves.
It has taken the Coronavirus disaster to be as earth-shattering as it has been with the mammoth loss of lives - particularly in hard-hitting regions such as the U.S, China, UK, Brazil, Italy and Spain -, to be the wake-up call that was and is needed & to make most of us believe that we are all in this together as a human race and the sense of togetherness as a country to get through the hard times. It has also proven that this virus doesn't discriminate or omit anyone, be it Black, Asian, younger or old, male or female, or wherever you are from. But, and whilst there is no going back, it is only when a vaccine is produced and distributed to the public that there is a glimmer of hope that things will look up and we'll see an end to all of this upheaval.
In the space of 6 months (with another 6 months to go, the longer this persists this year), we have lost what was such an intrinsic and easy way of life, and with that, Covid-19 has tested and tarnished humanity and our societies, and yet at the same time, it has transformed them and us and affecting us in so many ways by making us step out of our old norm: from changing our daily work patterns and routines and into the so-called new norm in adapting to new ways of going about our lives, of thinking, working and of understanding, as we fight the unknown. But we are also not only fighting a gigantic battle against a deadly and infectious disease: we are also fighting a mental and emotional battle to remain sane, strong, within ourselves and to not let it defeat us. It has made us see to it that whatever good comes out from and out of this, we must cherish it and never lose sight of what it truly means for us in our lives.
It will be something to see if that same community togetherness that has been banded around, harnessed and built up during and throughout Covid-19, in these somewhat daunting and dicey times, will evolve, or indeed disperse, post-Coronavirus.
The imperious world we are living in right now feels awfully strange and so far removed from normality, but also every change, be it positive or negative outcome, step, change and regulation we are seeing and that is occurring, is so rapid and each one of them has taken on a different meaning. & to remind us not to take anything for granted. The world is unforeseen, is unpredictable as it always is: after this, we cannot go back to the life it was before COVID-19 happened, but we must move forward, heeding the lessons from it and to reconnect with the people we've been separated from and of whom matter the most to us in our eyes.
That and when we expect the unexpected, to be prepared when and should another pandemic flare up and explode: it's how we oversee it and we do that by soldiering on, showing resilience, as well as remaining hopeful.
Reference:
Cannon, J M.S (LPC), What The Coronavirus Is Really Stealing From Us? - Psychology Today, 18 June, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment