COVID-19 Changing Who We are Mentally
Coronavirus pandemic is expected to trigger small but lasting changes in our personalities.
Have you ever wonder, your daily activity seems unfilled? You try and try to search for “something,” but it looks like you can’t find any. You are stuck. Everything around you feels like an iron cage. You bite the bullet.
You asked, “why this happened to me?”, “This is so not like me” and many other bad feelings that make you fed up.
The culprit might be the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its been a year since Indonesia struck with COVID-19, causing havoc all over the region. Everything closed. Yes, including our freedom to travel and enjoying “real” entertainment.
A global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 also resulted in daily living restrictions, including social distancing and closure of city and local recreational facilities, national parks, and playgrounds.
As of March 2020, more than 150 million children and adolescents in 165 countries are affected by the closures.
“But it’s just another case of the pandemic. I did nothing wrong.”
Then you doubted yourself and started to think:
Am I Normal?
Coronavirus affected all humans via prolonged social mitigation measures and secondary consequences, including the most severe economic meltdown in a century.
The global world population would become slightly more introverted, private, and more risk-aversive.
It’s so stressful!
The coronavirus pandemic was very different in terms of personal threat and risk distribution. Young adults were more stressed and anxious in response to coronavirus.
Coronavirus pandemic increases the privatization of our lives. You might think that there’s a change within you. Over the months, you enjoy your time spent alone more. If you are, I feel you.
According to McKinsey’sMcKinsey’s survey, this COVID-19 is indeed having a real impact on our mental health.
There are so many impacts of this pandemic. Depression and anxiousness because of job loss or the fact that they have to spend their time alone. 63–74% of people in the United States feeling either anxious or depressed, while 27–34% of the highly distressed.
Some people might be okay with being alone, but some others might not. Suppose so many people surround your daily life before the pandemic. Like, your job requires you to meet people directly in your own team or maybe your client. In that case, this drastic change might be killing you. The “empty” feeling will attack you consciously and unconsciously.
What we’ve seen in the pandemic the impact on the physical and mental sides. We’ve witnessed an exacerbation of existing behavioural-health conditions — both mental and substance use disorders — for individuals who face a disruption in care, and we’ve also seen a new onset of illnesses.
— Erica Hutchins Coe
The World Health Organization has noted that depression and anxiety have an estimated cost to the global economy of $1 trillion per year in lost productivity.
We will witness a dramatic restructuring of social order in a traditionally operated society in this unprecedented new reality.
The Case in China
Mi Xiang, Zhiruo Zhang, and Keisuke Kuwahara conducted a longitudinal study among children and adolescents (6–17 years) in five schools in Shanghai, China, randomly selected from five districts with a high population density. They found that the time spent in Physical Activity decreased dramatically.
Another finding also stated that sedentary behavior, measured by screentime, considerably increased during the pandemic, especially for leisure.
Reduced physical activity and prolonged sedentary behavior may negatively impact children’s and adolescent’s physical and mental health. In turn, such worsened health conditions would further reduce physical activity levels and prolong sedentary behavior.
The Case in Canada
A study was conducted by Iris Lesser and Carl Nienhuis on public health restrictions on physical activity behavior and well-being in Canadians. They illustrate significant differences between inactive and active participants. A more generous portion of passive participants reported less physical activity. A more substantial amount of active participants reported more physical activity since the pandemic.
Participants who were more physically active had more outstanding mental scores. In contrast, inactive participants who became more active or did more of their physical activity in the outdoors had lower anxiety levels.
Those that became less active reported significantly less benefit, less enjoyment, less confidence, less support, and fewer opportunities to be involved.
Self-efficacy is fundamental to long-term physical activity engagement. It is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in a particular situation. This belief is described as determinants of how people think, behave, and feel.
Inactive participants who became more active or maintained their physical activity levels during COVID-19 had lower anxiety than those who decreased their physical activity levels. Physical activity also plays a protective role in suppressing the stress response elicited by an overactive sympathetic nervous system response.
Maintaining activity levels indicated higher social, emotional, and psychological health levels and lower levels of generalized anxiety.
Adults who are regularly physically active experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than their peers due to changes in biological and psychological mechanisms.
Getting out
There are shreds of evidence that this pandemic indeed affecting us, specifically our mental health. Everybody felt it; the stress, depression, and anxiousness were real.
“So I am normal, right? Everyone feels the same anyway.”
Too bad you are not — most of us are not in normal condition. Note that this is not the commonality between most people, but the usual situation we used to do in the previous year.
“Are we fucked up then?”
“We can regulate ourselves in choosing and committing to a healthy lifestyle, assertively communicating with others, developing empathy, and connecting socially” — Gina Anindyajati, RSCM Psychiatrist.
Work your ass off!
There is so much evidence that low-level activity leads to several mental problems, such as depression and anxiety. Okay, just knowing it won’t give you any changes. Work your ass off!
15 minutes of cardio every day is enough. You can go cycling or take a walk outside your house.
If you prefer to workout from home, it’s also okay. Light activities, such as a static bike or HIIT (High-intensity interval training), are excellent.
You don’t need to push your body too hard. The point is to keep your cardiovascular system activated. When you work out, your body will release a hormone called Endorphine, which interacts with the receptors in the brain that trigger positive feelings.
Explore yourself more
From my experience, this is my most effective way to fight mental health attacks. By having more time to spend, im doing a lot of things that I cant do in the past.
Reading more books, joining several online courses, and WRITING!
You might find the things you actually want to do but didn’t have time for before. It is the perfect time to try all of those things!
Find new ways to connect with people.
Doing “your things” is not enough. It would be best to get other insight (e.g., stories, news, or knowledge) from your friends. It can be your closest to the newly-acquainted people.
I allocate at least one session per week for chit-chat and discuss with other people. Getting new things both by yourself and other people is the best combination of self-fulfillment — at least for me.
