Main reason why quarantine is bad
For me, anyway.
Sense of self worth is something built from interactions with others. You understand their reactions to you in subtle ways and it helps you in understanding who you are at the moment. You inner world is also important, of course, but you are the easiest one to fool. Other people less so. Which is why interactions with others are important — we are social animals!
What happens when you restrict interactions with friends, family and the world in general? You lose this important way of understanding yourself, in relation to the world. All these mirrors and constant reminders of when you’re doing good or bad are gone. You are left with an impaired understanding of yourself which is limited to your own thoughts, mostly.
Depending on the nature of your own thoughts that probably means different things. For example, if you are hard on yourself and often critique your own ways harshly — you will probably not end up in a good place. You need some human interaction to be better at placing yourself — your whole being — in the world.
Another word for your place in thee world is self worth, or what kind of self-esteem you possess. You can have high, low or (unlikely) just the right level of self-esteem in different areas of life. Point being, I think we unconsciously calculate this self worth and it heavily affects behavior. Whether we want to or not, no matter how superficial it might seem — that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
My guess is quarantine will tip people in general to be either too low or too high in self-esteem — depending on which way they lean when left alone in solitude. Crucial to finding the right level is getting correct information from yourself and others. Take others out of the equation and I think the result will be further off from the truth.
Furthermore, this line of thought touches upon the interesting subject of how much your circle of friends, family and essentially all interaction effect your own mental state. COVID-times or not. Every person in that circle is a “mirror” of sorts into your own mind. They all reflect different things depending on the person and the quality of their judgment. Choose those mirrors wisely.
I believe more interaction equals more information which results in better understanding. However, that interaction should in general be of some quality — otherwise it will not give the correct result. If you surround yourself with fools you will feel like a genius — and vice versa. Surround yourself with all kinds of people and you’ll be better off?
