Do you feel that your mental health is suffering during Lockdown?
Are you feeling anxious, sad, lonely, frustrated, angry, and the rest?
We know that depression is low mood that’s not related to any particular event. So someone feeling low following a bereavement isn’t suffering from depression – they are simply and naturally feeling an emotion that is appropriate and normal under the circumstances.
And during this pandemic, which has been going on for far longer than anyone could have imagined, and which has caused massive disruption to everyone’s lives – what are the appropriate and normal emotions?
Anxiety, sadness, loneliness, frustration, anger. And the rest.
I worry that we spend too much time and effort pretending (to the world, and to ourselves) that we’re all right really. When someone asks how we are, we say, ‘Fine’. We don’t like to admit to feelings of anxiety, sadness, loneliness, frustration or anger, and the rest.
But it’s the pretending, the not acknowledging, the sweeping under the carpet, that will cause harm to our mental health.
Let me put it another way – anyone who isn’t feeling anxious, sad, lonely, frustrated or angry at the moment hasn’t really been paying attention. These are perfectly reasonable, appropriate and NORMAL emotions, under the circumstances.
Feeling anxious, sad, lonely, frustrated, angry, and the rest, is proof that mentally you are very healthy indeed.
Let’s stop saying we’re fine. Let’s stop pretending. Next time someone asks how you are, tell them.
You’ll find that they’re feeling pretty much the same way too, if they’re being honest.
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Photo by ATC Comm Photo from Pexels
