A numbness to emotions
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, there were countless periods of hearing about the loss that people had experienced in their own lives. Each time it sounded the same as the previous; “They died from health complications due to Covid-19” or “They passed away due to Covid-19” — always the same story but a different person. After hearing this statement and reading it in the newspapers dozens upon dozens of times, a feeling of numbness starts to grow, and eventually there is no longer a feeling of sympathy for a person who had to deal with the death of a family member or a close friend. There is no more crying experienced on the receiving end of the news, just a simple hug and the generic, “I’m sorry for your loss” or “My condolences.” A person can only express so much sympathy in their lifetime before they start to no longer feel sorry for a person, they instead are at a loss for words and emotions while the person who told the news is expecting some sort of emotional response or reaction.
I personally have experienced this lack of sympathy for others during harsh times, such as the pandemic, and it hurts me more to know that people who are expressing their true emotions making them the most vulnerable they will ever be, are looking for a reaction that I cannot produce. After experiencing this lack of emotion, I realized that expressing sympathy is not something that everyone can do so easily, as everyone has their own way of expressing emotions. Sympathy is similar to having the will to do something. If someone does not have the will to do something because they are too lazy, then they will not complete said action; if someone is not capable of showing sympathy, it is impossible for them to create a genuine reaction on the spot because everyone’s way of showing their sympathy is different from the next person.
