The Uncanny Ability of the Coronavirus to Summon the Ghosts of the Past
How to fight unconscious anxiety
In the midst of this pandemic, existential dread seeps through the walls that confine us to our homes.
By now the initial effects on mental health have been widely reported. Fear and anxiety have overtaken our lives. Drug and alcohol use are on the rise. Domestic abuse rates have spiked like the virus, creating a pandemic within a pandemic.
The coronavirus has decreed a state of disruption. Worldwide quarantine measures and government lockdowns have ruptured our daily routines and thrown our learned habits into disarray. Our days have been brought to a standstill and our realities transformed. Even then, the true impact on our psychological health will only be brought to light after all is said and done and we make the attempt to return to “normalcy.”
But as therapists, we know all too well there is no return to normalcy, there is only a return to the past. We’re trained to watch it unfold in our consulting rooms with our patients; there is a direct correlation between periods of high stress and the patient’s acting out of old, familiar behaviour patterns. And as we collectively endure this prolonged state of heightened anxiety, we’re seeing this acting out take on more acute forms.
Herein lies the pandemic’s insidious assault on our psychological capacities, marked by its uncanny ability to bring the past into the present. Time becomes enmeshed. Old wounds are re-opened. Those who thought they had outgrown or moved beyond issues from childhood and adolescence may – or more often may not – realize that the only thing that had changed was their environment.
Those who grew up in abusive households, for example, may find themselves in an eerily similar place under quarantine; if we feel trapped with others for prolonged periods under stress, we become more prone to react to them in the same way we did to our caregivers, or in unhealthy ways our caregivers passed down to us. And if there was trauma in the past, it becomes triggered in the present. After all, trauma lives in the now.
But there are ways to cope.
- It’s okay to not feel okay. These are times characterized by heightened anxiety and frightening uncertainty. Recognizing our feelings of helplessness, loss, or inadequacy can go a long way to calming our anxieties and coming to a potentially comforting place of acceptance.
- You can learn to catch yourself in your old patterns. It may require an extra push in self-awareness and being mindful of the present moment. For some it might be catching themselves enacting familiar eating, sleeping and drinking patterns. For others, it’s noticing a resurgence of anger or depression. Perhaps more subtly and yet so prevalent, those with avoidant defences may “check out,” narrow their attention, or dissociate to their inner worlds, leaving others deprived of the relational connection that’s possible. This is a particularly devious defence mechanism because many avoidant individuals report feeling better under quarantine, relieved of the pressure to maintain connections with others, or feeling that others can finally relate to their experiences.
- Keep things in perspective. Just because we’re reliving the past in the present, it doesn’t mean the future is cancelled. This is a temporary state. Quarantine will be lifted. Maintaining a sense of hope and looking towards the future can help to both alleviate anxiety and prepare us for the afterwards.
- Mental health professionals across the board agree that creating and sticking to a daily structure or routine can reduce stress, which keeps the past held at bay, limiting its reach into the present.
- Pay attention to your dreams. You won’t hear this one often, but it’s not a coincidence if you’re having more dreams under quarantine – it’s unconscious anxiety. Our dreams contain hidden meaning that connects our past to our present. Make it a creative exercise to uncover clues in your dreams about what issues from your past are being triggered by the pandemic. There are no right or wrong answers, only what resonates with you. Better yet, do the exercise with someone else.
Which brings me to my final point.
- Above all else, stay connected with others and seek support if you need it. The psychosocial impact of social isolation and physical distancing will be long-lasting. Maintaining virtual or phone contact with others is arguably the most effective way to resist the coronavirus’s assault on our mental health.
At the end of the day, we remain social creatures. Our relational capacities can withstand the pressures. The human desire to connect has overcome all adversities of the past. It will survive this one, too.
