The Corona Virus and Grieving Your Old Life
As of this writing, the Corona Virus has kept the country under lockdown for seven months now. People are starting to feel the effects of the isolation. Everyone is sad and anxious to some degree. What is going on with us? Well, we are grieving our old lives. Yes, we used to feel free to go wherever we wanted whenever we wanted and now every time we want to go somewhere, we have to stop and think to ourselves, “Is this safe? Should I do this?” And then we have to put on those awkward masks!
Why is everyone so depressed lately?
Why is everyone so depressed lately? We miss our old selves, our old lives! And what can we do about it? For one, we can talk about it. Secondly, we can find new ways to connect with one another. One thing that has been a blessing since the pandemic started is that my family started doing Zoom calls every Saturday night. Every Saturday night my brother and sister-in-law call in from California and my middle brother and his family call in from Florida and then there is everyone else in my family that lives in Houston that is on the call. We’ve had trivia night, disco night, played “Would you rather…?” and just shot the shit with each other. It’s been a blast and it has brought us all closer to each other.
A Forced Slowdown
The Corona Virus has slowed us all down and made us think long and hard about our lives. Are we happy with the current condition of our lives? Are we doing enough? Are we living on purpose? People are frazzled because they have realized with the forced slowdown of the pandemic that they are not content with their lives and something is missing. Hopefully, they will take this time to gather their thoughts and restructure their lives into something they are content and comfortable with.
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At least I didn’t lose my life
When the pandemic first hit, I saw it as an inconvenience. I was forced to stop my counseling practicum at the psychiatric hospital and I felt like once again life was getting in the way of my career. (I had to quit my practicum a couple of years earlier due to having preeclampsia and having to be in the hospital for a month.) I was frustrated and sad. But months later I was able to go back to the practicum wearing my mask and I was able to complete my counseling hours. So, what did I really lose? A few months? Big deal! At least I didn’t lose my life.
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Are you content with your life?
What have you had to grieve during this pandemic? Are you finding that you are content with your life or are there some changes you would like to make? What are they?
DISCLAIMER
3 Comments
dara wilson
I have grieved my personal space. My love and i have been in our apartment almost everyday for 7 months. I love him so much but i just want to time to myself.
also we both suffer from depression, anxiety and my love suffer’s from ptsd and flashbacks from his time in Irag..
neither one of us have jobs…I grieve a lot of things but my personal time i miss the most
kiddmaryk@gmail.com
Dara, thank you for the comments. Yes, grieving personal space is a big one! When I move back home with my parents, I grieved my personal space a lot!
Jandie
Definitely feeling grief. My husband and I are complete opposites in most of our interests, but the thing that we love doing together is dreaming of travel and planning together. It feels like that has been tossed out of the window for the foreseeable future and it’s been hard. It feels like we’ve lost a year of life that we can’t do over… especially as our kids are growing… we just can’t get those cancelled memories back.