In the early, uncertain days of the pandemic, it’s very likely that your brain’s threat detection system – the amygdala – was on high alert for fight-or-flight. As you learned that masks helped protect us – but package-scrubbing didn’t – you probably developed routines that eased your sense of dread. But the pandemic has dragged on and the acute state of anguish has given way to a chronic condition of languish.
Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you may not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive
In psychology, we think about mental health on a spectrum from depression to flourishing. Flourishing is the peak of well-being where you have a strong sense of meaning, mastery and mattering to others. Depression is the valley of ill-being in which you feel despondent, drained and worthless.
While restrictive quarantine is still being enforced, the challenges of staying focused and maintaining one’s sense of equanimity persist and intensify.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued some online reminders through its website:
“It is normal to feel fearful and anxious during this t
Moitrayee Das
(The writer can be mdmallika7@gmail.com)
Nowadays whenever I call up a friend or speak to my sister, all I hear is I feel so tired (without engaging in any taxing task), I feel blah (unexplainable feeling of void) or I don t know what s going on (losing interest in work, play or any situation). I am not surprised to hear this because I feel the same, and I too am not sure what I do call this feeling. We are all still grappling with the horror and remnants of 2020, and before we could even digest or absorb the fact that 2020 was an actual year that we had to live by, the disastrous sight of death and pain in 2021 is knocking at our doors with news reports flashing 24X7 on lack of oxygen, hospital beds, ventilators, dying patients, crying families, footpath cremation and the list goes on. I read somewhere that it is almost like people are waiting for their turn to die because that seems to be the inevitable fate of people living in India now!
Thereâs a name for the âblahâ youâre feeling
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At first, I didnât recognise the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they werenât excited about 2021.
A family member stayed up late to watch
National Treasure again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6am, I was lying there until 7, playing Words With Friends.