The 2020 Pandemic and Increasing Levels of Social Anxiety & Depression
After it happened, when the world shut down for a total of 3-6 months, it was harder to get up and pretend like everything was normal again. For me, when I realized how divisive a single piece of non-replicable RNA sequencing with a protein coat could be, it wasn’t the pandemic I was afraid of, it was people.
In a study published by the Public Health Journal in 2020, lockdowns used to measure the spread and frequency of disease control have interesting effects on the psychological flexibility of individuals in crisis governmental protocols. Thus, aiding in the deterioration of individuals’ social and emotional health. Even more so, the study, published, found an increasing relationship between Pandemic severity & positive correlations of social anxiety in pandemic regions.
The psychological separation that is speared in times of crisis governmental efforts takes an allotted toll on the overall mental well-being of people impacted. When the heightening of social anxiety is spurred by continued political and governmental propaganda tensions are bound to continue to rise.
This is somewhat of a paradox when you look closely at it. The misinformation of American news and media within the current political climate not only creates mistrust within the government but also with our fellow individual constitutes. Isolationist anxiety may feel like the only real truth when battling for consistency in a seemingly bizarre reality television show of the Trump era. More importantly, the dire need to protect one’s sense of identity or sovereignty is heightened as well. During a global health crisis, what may have been different theories of ideology, are now impeding threats on one’s sense of psychological, emotional, and physical safety.
Keeping plans with someone who may have a different viewpoint than you feels arbitrary in existentialist isolation. It feels like it is harder to make light of the things that intuitively never felt ‘right.’
Even more so, seeing friends and not acknowledging the importance of our political climate and world affairs feels socially irresponsible but anxiety-provoking at the same time – an altogether new feeling of being alone in one’s sense of subjectivity.
As President Trump tweeted, “We shouldn’t be afraid of COVID-19.” What we should be afraid of the inability to pause, reflect, and decipher what this culture means for our future. And how to create a healthy culture for our children and generations to follow. Either way, being stuck in a purgatory of participatory and non-participatory inaction feels less than sublime. Thoughtfully, reclaiming rhetoric around what it means to live within a degree of truth should be what feels the most uplifting during this time – but even then, you need some semblance of leadership.
