Life Disrupted (1/3): Mental Health
This essay is part of a series that reflects on how COVID-19 has been disrupting life as usual on big and small scales.
- In part 1 we are looking at what is the impact of social distancing and home isolation on mental health.
- Part 2 explores the impact on education worldwide and the opportunities for blended learning in the future.
- Part 3 looks at the impact of this crisis on the global economy, the way the concept of growth might change and the implication on how we work.
Social distancing has been at least recommended in some countries and imposed in most.
Social gatherings and unnecessary activities have been banned, which has been disrupting the lives of most people. Working, learning, communicating, eating, exercising, praying, to name a few, should all now be practiced in the boundaries of one’s home.
How do people cope with loneliness?
How do people cope with being with roommates or families non stop?
The psychological effect of the crisis has been affecting people on two levels:
- Growing anxiety, panic, and fear caused by external factors such as news and social media messages
- Growing anxiety from internal thoughts and worries about one’s job, health (and death), family and future
Life Disrupted
Most of the struggles associated with the COVID-19 outbreak have been around the adaptation of the usual routine to a new setting. One example of that is religious or political gatherings. Amidst this crisis and the global warnings on social distancing, people find it very challenging to let go of their routines. For instance in Nigeria, many people feel that they are being deprived of worshipping God, from gathering together to pray. In Bangladesh, as well, people find it very hard to accept that they cannot go to a mosque anymore.
But radical times require radical measures. So organizations, including religious ones, have to adapt their messaging to keep people safe at home.
Education and work are two big areas of life affected by the crisis. If online education or home office would have been highly debated only a few weeks ago, now everyone has to do it. Unfortunately, this crisis (like most crises) is hitting the most vulnerable first. People who cannot afford a computer or people with limited access to the internet are left out. Schools that don’t have the resources and the capacity to transfer curriculums and training online are forced to stay closed.
People living in countries with poor infrastructures, who, many times have big families, are struggling to make ends meet in this new environment. The situation is critical.
Anxiety, panic, and paranoia
Not everyone is infected with the virus, but everyone is affected by it mentally.; especially people with pre-existing conditions such as depression can be more susceptible to these new circumstances.
Across different geographies, we can observe a growing intergroup anxiety. People are experiencing negative emotions when interacting with others, especially the ones that they perceive as being different from them. This manifested on a larger scale initially with rises in discrimination first in Europe against people from Asia and then in Asia against people from Europe. On a smaller scale, people are just more cautious when interacting with others and anxious about their and others’ physical health. Every sneeze or cough spurs one to question: What if I have it? What if my neighbor or the person next to me has it?
The rise in panic and anxiety has also been escalated by a rise in fake news.
Fake news has been around for a very long time, but these days the stakes are high; it can cost people’s lives. Social media has been exploiting all of the weaknesses in human psychology around sensationalism and how we see risk. A car has a higher chance of killing you than terrorism, yet people are still much more terrified about the latter. Because we are not in control of it. With this crisis, we witness the same phenomenon, people are anxious because they don’t feel in control.
Governments can play an important role in this crisis, as in the case of Vietnam, where the communication from the authorities has been very clear and positive and people get reassured every day that everything is under control.
Social media distancing
Social media can cause more unrest because of the amount of negative news being shared around. At the same time, however, it can be dangerous these times to distance ourselves from social media. We have the physical distance already, but we need to remain social and social media is a great way to do that.
We have been witnessing creative ways on how people socialize online: setting up virtual drinks or dinners with friends, seeing live improv shows, doing live morning meditations, hosting virtual birthday parties and so on. In the end, it all comes down to our attitude towards this crisis and being creative about how we can maintain a normal lifestyle.
A good way to approach this is to think of social media as a tool and staying in control of how you use it. Simple things like disabling notifications and planning time to catch up with everything and everyone can make you more mindful in how you use technology.
The thin line between solidarity and physical distancing
Countries around the world have been dealing with the crisis in different ways. If some have strictly imposed social distancing and locked down completely, others like Sweden or the Netherlands have been relying on awareness and communication with the public, leaving it to the individual to take responsibility and measures regarding social distancing. The effectiveness of these different approaches can only be assessed in time.
Recommended or imposed, social distancing has been creating an online avalanche of questions, memes, and posts of people coping with their new routines.
Just a few days after social distancing was imposed, you could see that people were trying to make the distinction between solidarity and physical distancing. Some people went to say that we should start calling it physical distancing instead.
The goal is of course to promote solidarity, compassion, and collaboration. We need to stay away from each other physically, but we do need to be socially and morally closer than ever. Because this is not the crisis of one nation or of one class of people; it is a global problem that will affect us all.
We are all in this together.
Solidarity and online connection have manifested in many different ways; people virtually painting together, singing, lifting each others’ morale, educating about the virus, doing voluntary work, etc. If anything, online communication through video calls, can actually bring people closer together. Having a screen in between you and the other person makes it somehow easier to be more honest and open in communication; it makes it easier to say things that maybe you wouldn’t dare to say in person. So in this sense, having technology is a great relief. You can still communicate with your family and friends despite the physical distance.
To conclude, yes, this crisis and physical distancing is challenging. People struggle with their new routines and it is challenging to stay sane in between four walls.
However, we shouldn’t forget how fascinatingly resilient humans can be. We accept and we adapt. This is how we survived in the last millennia and this is how we came to thrive. We are experiencing this global crisis but we will overcome it. It is a long milestone; it is a journey rather than a sprint and we need to adapt and cope with this new reality.
This essay was possible with the contribution and reflections of Sadia Afrin, Shakil Ahmed, Phuong Ha Pham, Oluwaferanmi Adeyemo, and Tom Marshall. Thank you guys for a very insightful online discussion and for sharing your experiences.
If you liked this essay, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me, I would love to engage in further discussion on the topic and learn about your experiences in this crisis.
If you are interested in social innovation, education, and economics, check out the new project that I am co-founding with Sadia Afrin, WETHNK.
WETHNK is a social innovation organization aimed to build the next generation of leaders who are fundamentally different in terms of how they think and act.
