But we’re past covid, right? Why it may still be affecting your mental health.
As a counsellor, I hear about all the big and small details in people’s lives. Recently in my sessions with people, I’ve heard a few people state that they feel more affected than they would have been a few years ago, or they’re feeling unusually sensitive, despite things in life happening as usual. Or…even if there are bigger stressors, they feel less able to cope.
I think it’s super easy to forget that systemic issues and global, social and cultural issues are also impacting our experiences. It is sometimes easy to forget that while we may come to counselling for our personal concerns, the wider world will have an impact on how we cope.
While we may be or feel free of COVID-19 restrictions and lock-downs now, the impact of COVID-19 continues to rage on, and it is still affecting us in subtle and not so subtle ways.
For example, since COVID our finances across the board are taking a hit, from fuel to rent to food (including supply chain issues left over from COVID). This is frustrating at best, and terrifying at worst if you no longer feel like you can financially keep your head above water.
COVID also impacted how we work and live, an adjustment that while having many benefits (including the option to work from home) has also been such a major adjustment that it might take us the next year or two to fully integrate into our new “norm”. Working from home has also impacted the way we socialise. Whether that’s for better or worse will depend on your wider community and how often you still socialise with others. While for others, the adjustment of going back to the office has been an interesting ride.
Where am I going with this? All of this is constant and uncertain change, which affects our mental health just as much as it affects our external world.
If you think of COVID as a marathon, we went into it completely untrained and unprepared. We were forced to run it, despite our protestations. And now we’ve all crossed the finish line. But if you had to actually run a marathon completely unprepared, you can bet your bottom dollar you’re going to need a significant amount of time to recover.
COVID is both the marathon, and the ongoing injury.
We are currently in recovery, but it feels like we’ve already forgotten about the fact we’ve just run a marathon and we’re trying to get up and walk about as if it never happened, wondering where our sore muscles (or poor mental health) came from.
We’ve forgotten we are still being impacted by COVID, whether that’s socially, financially, culturally, whatever! All of these major and minor changes add up, and add uncertainty and stress even if it’s not conscious or at the forefront of our mind.
Go easy on yourself for the next few months or years. Yes, I said years. Our world has not stopped changing since then, and trying to keep up is exhausting. You may find yourself more sensitive, less resilient to change. Remember that you, and our world, is now in recovery. Life may also not feel, look or be the same even after recovery, and that will take its own adjustment. Maybe its own grieving process, and that’s OK.
But you’ve got this. Go easy, and take your time attempting to find your feet again. Get support if you need, but don’t beat yourself up because you wonder why you’re so suddenly impacted by change or additional stress.
