Distraught mother works with kids in the background
Just as we can have too much of a good thing, we can also have too much of a bad thing, like the pandemic. And, right now, that bad thing is causing “COVID fatigue.”
Recently, many clients told me they don’t want to talk pandemic anymore, whereas, in prior sessions, it often dominated the discussion. As some have put it, “I’m done” and “It’s too much.” I’ve felt this way at times, but then remind myself of those with the worst of COVID fatigue—healthcare providers, teachers, customer service workers, all the folks in public health and safety, and the like. To some degree, most of us have this mental blight, but these folks have it on steroids.
One consequence of COVID fatigue can be emotional desensitization. This is what parents worry about when their kids play violent video games. They don’t want their children to grow insensitive toward brutality and cruelty. With repeated exposure to violent images and actions, the brain becomes inured and indifferent, shutting off the emotional response to what it is witnessing or participating in. At worst, it’s a sort of dissociation, a state of mental disconnection.
Relentless Drumbeat
Well, COVID is no video game, but the relentless drumbeat of cases, deaths, economic pain, social isolation, uncertainty and political dysfunction taxes the mind’s capacity to feel empathy and remain emotionally engaged. Psychological self-preservation sets in, compelling many to raise their mental shields and ward off the incoming fire of bad news. Some do this by emotionally desensitizing themselves to all the negativity, while others employ compartmentalization, essentially mentally putting aside the ugly facts. As I’ve written before, this is particularly challenging for highly sensitive persons, or empaths, who find it exceedingly difficult to emotionally distance or put disturbing things out of their minds.
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COVID fatigue extends well beyond the individual. Like the coronavirus itself, this mindset is contagious, spreading through social groups, families and co-workers. Emotional contagion is a well-researched and validated phenomenon. If enough people around me express weariness with the pandemic, I’m much more inclined to adopt that attitude. Some refer to this as “group think.” As social animals, it satisfies our need to belong.
As the number of COVID deaths, not to mention long-term health impacts, escalate, the initial shock value fades. Sufficient repetition of these negative events eventually overwhelms the brain’s capacity to respond. To push back against this numbing, public health experts use stark comparisons. In describing the pandemic’s mortality rate, everything from “three jumbo jets crashing a day” to “three times the American casualties in the Vietnam war” to “on average, a death every eight minutes.” However, these somber messages only add to the weariness of those already fatigued.
COVID fatigue is not the same as denial. It is most likely to occur in folks who care, but then find caring too great a burden. Deniers don’t care because they don’t believe the pandemic is real or serious, or it’s simply not in their nature to be empathic or concerned with the collective good.
What to do? Quit poisoning the spiritual and mental well, which means reduce and modulate your news exposure, particularly on TV and social media. Reading a newspaper, print or online, allows us to titrate our exposure to bad news. We can decide what to read, whereas broadcast news dictates what we see and hear. Taking control of one’s news consumption is essential, not to the point of ignoring what is unfolding with the pandemic, but sufficiently to turn a flood of information into a controlled and selective flow. It’s also important to replace some of that news time with positive and fulfilling activities—nature immersion, creative pursuits, family games, exercise, listening to music, reaching out to others, and the like.
Of equal or greater importance is to remember that COVID fatigue, while no fun, helps some of us move toward acceptance—accepting what is rather than pining for what is not. Arriving at “It is what it is” lets us move past mental paralysis and meet the long-term challenges ahead.
There will be many.
For more, visit philipchard.com.
