Understanding COVID Fatigue: It’s Been a Year
It’s been a year of cancelled weddings and graduations, concerts and vacations. It’s been a year filled with watching videos on how to sanitize your groceries, researching the most effective mask, and endless zoom meetings. It’s been a year of schooling at home and for some, unemployment. Unimaginable grief of losing loved ones, fears of food insecurity, as well as threats of not keeping up with the rent, have plagued our world. COVID-19 has deeply impacted our lives for a year now and it’s important to understand the long term affect of these stressors.
Lately we have been hearing, “there is light at the end of the tunnel,” as vaccines are slowly rolling out and cases are decreasing. This news is wonderful and is reason for optimism and hope, but why are many people feeling skeptical, unmotivated, and apathetic in the face of this news? After a year of being flooded with fear, confusion, anger, and frustration, it is natural to experience a numbness. I hear many people talking about “hitting a wall” or “burning out.” Again, this is a long term impact of a year seeped in anxiety.
When we need to be attuned in a hyper-vigilant way to a threat, our nervous system goes into a “fight-or-flight” mode. “Fight-or-flight” mode produces a rush of energy, adrenaline, and also releases stress hormones, specifically cortisol, in order to give our body the needed response to an immediate threat. Usually, when the threat recedes, the body gets a break, especially if we find safety, comfort, or some kind of physical release for the hormones unleashed in the body. Unfortunately, for a year now, many of us have been experiencing perceived threats more regularly than finding safety and comfort. Our bodies are not built to maintain this level of strain. The natural result of this continuous stress can be apathy and lack of motivation.
One of the antidotes to this burn out is understanding it. COVID fatigue has created a false sense of self, a counter way of being for many people. It can be confusing for people who are normally functioning and productive, to regularly be experiencing a lethargy that feels like quicksand. Our brain often wants to understand and make sense of patterns we experience, so it is critical to recognize the symptoms of long term stress. Once we identify that our current state of being is directly impacted by our situation, it is also important to release any internalized guilt, judgement, or shame about our unmotivated state. Having self-compassion is one of the greatest techniques to move through emotional states.
The other significant neutralizing agent for long-term pent up stress is regular self care. I talk about it all the time, but it never hurts to get another reminder. Self care is everything from flossing your teeth and eating nutritious foods, to talking with loved ones, exercise, sunshine, and meditation. Self care is anything that increases your mental well-being and elevates your health.
It’s been a year so be kind to yourself and perhaps take this message from Dr. Edith Eger, a clinical psychologist and Holocaust survivor. On a recent Brené Brown podcast, Dr. Eger reflected on her days in a concentration camp. She explained that she could not let the external messaging destroy her internal will to keep going. She kept focus on surviving each day in the hope of tomorrow and she still is at the age of 93!