It is the moment we have had to live, so we debate between what we can and cannot do. There are external and internal restrictions compared to what this pandemic has caused, governments promulgate a new normality that they do not even know where it will lead us. Life cannot be stopped, because that is not feasible for survival either, but trying to return to the previous life for the moment is a fantasy.
DECIDE.
There comes a time when we will have to decide. In each city, the political authorities will establish social measures to reincorporate us to the different productive activities, but that will not guarantee anything, it will only serve to reactivate economic activities, which are very important to generate income that allows us to live, but not consistent with what means health care today.
Each personal situation is different and therefore the decision made in this regard must be analyzed from this reality. To what extent you will have a social life again will depend on each person and their circumstances.
ISOLATION.
People have different tolerances to both physical and psychological pain. For this reason, there are people who find it much more difficult to deal with isolation. On the one hand, the person who translates isolation as loneliness, either for their personal characteristics or for the moment of life in which they are. When the issue is the feeling of loneliness, there is an urge to get in touch with others.
I wonder at what level under the circumstances we will be able to get in contact with other people in the following months? What is going to happen with the interactions? Where and how are we going to meet? What sensation will we experience in these encounters? I think we will have to give the answer to these questions according to what we will be experiencing in the near future.
On the other hand, when isolation puts the person in a reality that becomes heavy with the passage of time, if the relationship of coexistence is complicated by the person with whom he has had to live in isolation, if there are problems due to shared spaces or due to interaction times, or if there are issues that cannot be agreed. The house can become a place where one would not want to be, within this possibility there is also the time of permanence, it is not the same a few hours to share a space that all day for a long period of time, can go out afloat the fears, the anxieties, the deepest contradictions, generating a climate of discomfort.
What is the supposed normality to which we are returning? What is the life that awaits us outside the door of our houses? What does each one feel in the face of loneliness, excess of the same company or lack of someone who cannot be seen for any reason?
DEEPER.
Crises have that quality of bringing to light what is well kept, then what is pending, what is painful, what is not contemplated emerges, something that in some way was not processed at other times in life, but that in view of the unique conditions in which we live today no longer has space within you.
May chaos appear. If the person fights against what is happening and there is no way to solve it, it will be useless, in the end the fight is directed towards himself. There may appear a feeling of constant dissatisfaction, the feeling that what has been taken from us also carries a certain appreciation of our lives.
SEEK COHERENCE.
Our brain has a habit of looking for the reasons and the logical coherence of what happens to us in life, so in the face of any change we experience we spend our time thinking about how it happened, what it will involve in the now and where it leads us.
In times of uncertainty, reaching that mental coherence is somewhat difficult, since you do not know exactly what causes the crisis, you do not know the surest way to act in the face of circumstances, and worse the prognosis that this crisis has. Nobody has been able to say for sure what is expected in the coming months.
That is the problem of the situation as we are living it, much is uncertain, we are living a kind of trial error, in view of what is happening at the moment decisions are made without greater certainty of their effects.
THE EXPECTABLE.
Our brain will search relentlessly for possible solutions to these events, that is why our nervous system will respond with various symptoms, one of them is sleep disorders, and several people are sleeping less than normal, or wake up tired even if they have slept enough or they wake up at dawn and cannot fall asleep again. Our brain does not stop thinking about the possible ways to solve the question, the mess is that those ways will not solve what we are experiencing, they will only be individual positions in the face of the crisis, although they could generate a better life given the circumstances.
Sadness without apparent cause, it is also another form of response to the impotence of what it is up to the person to live, to start feeling the low mood or sadness that come or go, remember that isolation itself may be the reason that generates that mood, let's be patient with ourselves.
Irritability or mood swings, it can also be a normal response to frustration, there is no way one can remain stoic to so much uncertainty without anything happening to him.
Anxiety is related to fear of the future, fear of getting sick, of not being adequately cared for, of having to go to the hospital, of not being able to work, of the dangers that may appear at a social level, of death of oneself or someone close, to an uncertain future, then anxiety may appear as a normal response.
These are normal responses to a crisis as big and unexpected as the one we are experiencing, let us open ourselves to be compassionate with ourselves, to not push ourselves too hard, to not force a positive and false attitude without considering that our emotions and feelings are legitimate. Try to understand that we need time to adapt and that our nervous system is struggling to achieve it, let's also be cautious if any of these responses seem too strong to deal with alone, so we seek help, not all of us respond the same to the crisis, it is we must recognize our unique way of being and seek solutions to what happens to us.
For now, this is how we have many challenges in front of us, let's find the most appropriate ways to face them from who we are, from what is in our hands. Let's remember that each step counts to continue.
Dra. Isabel Ayala Vera
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
COMMERCIAL ENGINEER
JUNGIAN ANALYST IAAP
WSAPP 593996050245
The original article in Spanish has been published on MAY 25,2020;
found at www.paolaayalavera. jimdo.com,
this has been translated for this publication,
the rights to the text and the photographs are by
Paola Ayala Vera. This article can be cited with
the proper reference.
Tags: self-discover, depression, self-knowledge, decide, self-care, anxiety, covid 19, sleep disorders, resilience