It cannot be denied at this point: social distancing has taken a toll on us.
It’s not really anyone’s fault, and it’s not really unexpected either. We all know that humans are meant to live in community. That’s why cities exist, after all. People need people. Going without that in our lives is taxing, and to be isolated for long periods of time has been shown to have a detrimental impact on mental health.
I think the thing that is so unexpected about what we’ve seen happen with the coronavirus is how long the quarantine has lasted. It has lifted in some parts of the country, and these places are now reporting higher COVID-19 numbers than ever before. And a lot of people just don’t care. It’s not because they don’t care about their health or the health of others. It’s because social distancing has had such a horrid impact on mental health that the risk of getting sick is not enough to keep people apart.
This is not to undermine or downplay the severity of COVID-19. It is a very real threat, especially to the elderly and medically frail. It has the potential to kill people, and we want to avoid this at all costs. No one wants to see a loved one become ill and pass away. When it’s something that is preventable, we want this even more so. The novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic might not be completely preventable, but there are certainly things that we can do to help lower the risk of contracting it. Social distancing is one of those things that has proven to be helpful at slowing and reducing the spread of the virus.
While this is true and the disease is a powerful one, we also cannot deny that social distancing has taken a toll of its own. The suicide rate in our country is much higher than it should be, and isolation is playing at least some part in this. Divorce, domestic violence, and elder abuse rates are also much higher than experts projected them to be at this point just a year ago. Again, social isolation is probably the main culprit for this.
Social distancing has helped save lives. But it’s also helped to ruin them in some ways. How do we find a balance to this?
I wish there was an easy answer to this. There’s not. Even the people that have devoted their lives to tackling issues like this don’t seem to have any answers. In some ways, it’s quite frustrating. In other ways, it makes complete sense. Nothing like this has ever happened before.
All of this is to say that if you’re feeling down because of social distancing, you’re not alone. That doesn’t mean that you are being selfish or that you are not a patriot. It doesn’t mean any of those things. It just means that you are human and that you want to be with other humans.
We still need to practice social distancing. We need to wear our masks and take every precaution that we can. There are certain places that we should avoid going to, even as restrictions are eased. But we also need to be aware of our mental health.
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