Quarantine Trauma
Things are ramping up across the world, and tensions are high. While we expected some casualties, the pitiful response by many countries’ officials has caused a drastically larger death toll than should have happened. With the mounting terror of the situation getting so out of hand, we’re starting to see what could be an equally deadly pandemic: Quarantine Stress.
You’ve probably seen a few videos of this already. One in particular that stood out to me was a doctor collapsing into tears as he had to beg his young son, a toddler, not to come close to him because he had been at the hospital. People are having to cope with impossibly stressful situations and we as a society are not prepared to deal with that, even without a life-threatening global pandemic. Especially in the US, where our politicians are cartoonish-ly stupid/evil, and mental health is considered a luxury rather than a necessity.
We’re all going to have to get a comprehensive education on our mental health as quickly as possible, and we’re going to have to form un-likely support networks. If you’ve been following this blog for awhile now, then a lot of this isn’t exactly new to you. If you haven’t been following this blog for long… Well, hi, thanks for stopping by, hope you’ll stick around for a bit because this blog will be useful for you.
Now, I thought about talking about some stuff that we could all do for ourselves to keep sane, but… I mean, I just did that last week. If you are looking for tips on keeping yourself stitched together, you should go back and check that out. No, today I just want to give a bit of solidarity by talking about an experience I had last week.
Last week, my dad contacted me out of nowhere. We haven’t really talked much over the last few years outside of holidays (and even then mostly Christmas and Thanksgiving), so I was pretty surprised by the reaching out. In a nutshell, the conversation was catching up in light of the fact that a massive pandemic is raging through the world that happens to be incredibly fatal for people with his specific combination of issues: older, immuno-compromised, prior health-issues… you know, concerning shit. On top of that, the national guard is all over my hometown, which makes sense considering it’s in Illinois (which currently has a stay at home order).
Now, at first I thought I’d be fine, so I went in to work the next morning. I work at a grocery store and am considered ‘essential labor,’ so I don’t get to take part in the layoffs and/or work from home situation that everyone else gets to. I have to go out there, every day, and help people get their food situation sorted. People, might I add, that have the survival instincts of fucking lemmings. “Stay at home as much as possible” apparently means “go to the grocery store daily because you’re bored.” So I’m talking to the same people for over a week now, each telling me every time they come through that they aren’t hoarding, this is just their weekly shopping for the fifth day in a row, when one of the customers comes through talking about the national guard. Turns out some of the rumors I had heard the night before were true: The National Guard were mobilizing across the country. The conversation from the night before, combined with the constant barrage of aggravation and the revelation of that conversation, triggered some dominoes in me. That revelation happened at roughly 9 AM; by 2 PM I was a blubbering mess and had to go home early.
Breaking down isn’t something that happens all at once. They sneak up on you and take their time as you’re whittled down by things you didn’t even think would cause you problems. Remember that as you work in these ‘essential’ services, or as you conference call for your work from home or when you’re reaching out to people. Keep an eye out, check up on others, and try to be understanding.
We’re all in this together.
As always, thanks to my Patrons for supporting me over on patreon.com/bardsgambit
Special shoutouts to:
AJ
John Beckelhymer
Katie Coker
Tyler Litton
Sara White
Thaddius Goldner
William Moton
Serenity Tomala
Brett Schoonover
Elliot Chapple
