Trapped inside...inside our Heads by HannahDusch02

TRAPPED INSIDE

INSIDE OUR HEADS

TABLE OF

CONTENTS 2 8 12 20 24 28 32 41

LONELINESS THE FEELING OF

MISSING OUT FREEDOM FEAR L ACK OF

MEANINGLESSNESS AND

BOREDOM ADDICTION UNCERTAINTY CREDITS

L O N E

N E S

How does loneliness affect our mental health?

Millions of us have felt lonely during the coronavirus pandemic. As we work together to stay safe and save lives, we may find ourselves spending less time with family, friends or familiar faces - especially if we’re shielding or self-isolating.

Helping others who might be experiencing loneliness

Try calling a friend, family member, health professional or counsellor to talk about your feelings. You could also contact Samaritans on freephone 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org if you need someone to talk to. Join an online group or class that focuses on something you enjoy. It could be an exercise class, book club, art class etc. Try getting out into nature if you can do so safely. Connecting with the outside world can boost your mental health and wellbeing. This is a challenging and sometimes lonely time, but it will pass. There will be lots of hugs, shared pots of tea, parties and celebrations in the future. For now, let’s be as kind as possible to ourselves and others.

What to do if you are feeling lonely

Loneliness during coronavirus

Many of us feel lonely from time to time and these short-term feelings shouldn’t harm our mental health. However, the longer the pandemic goes on for, the more these feelings become deep-rooted. Long-term loneliness brings an increased risk of certain mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and increased stress. And having a mental health problem can make you more likely to feel lonely: for example, stigma about your condition may make it hard to open up to others about it, or social anxiety may make it difficult to reach out to others.

Check in on people you know who live alone or might not have many relatives or close connections to check in on them. A message or a phone call could make a big difference to someone who hasn’t heard from anyone in a while. If it’s a neighbour, you could even share something you’ve baked with them - at a safe distance! If you know someone who struggles with technology, now could be a good time to talk them through setting up something like Skype or Zoom at home. This could make a huge difference to their social interactions in future. Age UK has a handy guide to making video calls with different apps. The acts of kindness and community we saw at the start of the pandemic can still help us today. We’ve come up with some more ideas for random acts of kindness.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO PREVENT LONELI NESS 5

Definition of Loneliness

While common definitions of loneliness describe it as a state of solitude or being alone, loneliness is actually a state of mind. Loneliness causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. People who are lonely often crave human contact, but their state of mind makes it more difficult to form connections with other people. Researchers suggest that loneliness is associated with social isolation, poor social skills, introversion, and depression.

concerts, virtual gatherings).

the feeling of missing out during the covid pandemic

feelings towards new online activities (e.g., online

distancing at home, but has been replaced by

during the pandemic, even when socially

work shows that FOMO has not disappeared

wo r k s h ow s t h a t F OM O h a s n o t d is a p p ea red

the feeling of missing out during the covid pandemic The current

The majority of research on the fear of missing out (FOMO) has focused on understanding how social media posts about attractive unattended experiences taking place in the physical world (e.g., a friend‘s vacation) influence individuals‘ affective states. With quarantine measures in place, and in the absence of travel and party photos on social media, do individuals feel they are missing out on enjoyable experiences?

effects and stay healthy during the pandemic and in the postpandemic era. We discuss remedies and suggest new research avenues that may help elevate the negative consequences of FOMO on well-being.

As a consequence, we find that FOMO threatens well-being by causing important psychological and health issues, such as sleep deprivation, loss of focus, declined productivity, and finding relief in knowing that others have difficulty keeping up with abundant digital content. Importantly, we find these consequential effects both during the initial (May 2020) With excessive Internet use and virtual and late stages FOMO likely to be a ( D e c e m b e r continuing reality of 2020) of the life, questions remain as to how one can refpandemic. rain from its negative

You took away a part of me, a part I didn’t know for sure ever existed and which I will never get to know. With sparkling water and gin tonics and Eiffeltowers you came into my life. You gave me an exciting feeling in my tummy and long-expected guarantee for a change to the better. You 2020 se on the highest hope while deep-down I was doubting everything and everyone but mostly myself. I was feared by everyone and everyone for so long, future. You 2020 disappointed massively, you’re not surprised, are you? Let my high hopes slip through my fingers, bust into a thousand pieces and thousands of questions. No answers. You were supposed to stay for three months, then six, soon it has been two years, when will you leave? In peace or war? You took away a part of me. You took away being young and stupid and incredibly careless and endlessly free. Going to a shitty club somewhere nowhere and meeting random strangers and never see them again. Waiting for the perfect night to happen and staying out until the birds start singing and the sky turns red, then pink, then washed Sunday blue. You took away so many stories, I can never tell. And I don’t care that I learned playing the guitar, sitting at home alone. I missed out, we missed out on that summer, that year. Now I don’t see them anymore, we moved away, we’re not close anymore, we moved on. You took away smiling at strangers. For a while you even took away my favorite time of the day - the darkness. You locked me inside you made me take my night walks uneasily. You gave me too much time to think, rethink and overthink everything again and again. Time to self-optimise but slip on the pressure and land on the rockbottom hard ground. I want to travel and go out and laugh wholeheartedly and cry bitterly, let me feel every emotion. And yes this is selfish and this is white wealthy privileged shit. And I might be irresponsible but I’m just another teen doesn’t know what’s going on. 2020 and 2021, you taught me lessons I didn’t want to be taught. You took away feeling light. Dear 2022 what are you going to take? Or are you going to bring something, answers.

Dear

2020, 2021, 2022?

The pandemic has been a life-changing event. It denied us the freedom of choice and introduced stringent restrictions on work, education, travel, social activity. All the money in the world could not buy you an air ticket! All the wealth in the world could not ensure that you could combat the virus. All of a sudden we were forced to be homebound. We were made to work from home, study online and get used to online retail. We soon accepted lockdowns and quarantines, masking and social distancing. We learnt to

What does freedom mean in the time of Covid pandemic? deeply value our freedom which we had simply taken for granted. The virus had put us under house arrest for all the environmental abuse we have indulged in over the decades. I have missed many family events, especially my grandnephew’s birth. Travel restrictions have delayed critical product approvals and hurt our business. Many business deals have been postponed and many sites have had to function with skeletal staff.

Vaccination has improved the situation and I am hopeful things will improve for the better. The meaning of freedom has not changed.

The way we appreciate freedom has. Covid-19 has been a wake-up call for the world. This pandemic has made us realise that the gift of life and all the other good things that have given us joy in the past should not be taken for granted. People around the world have gone through unprecedented problems in the last 18 months. I strongly believe that the pandemic has made us realise that freedom comes with certain responsibilities towards each other and our planet. We should learn valuable lessons from the pandemic. We need more kindness and empathy; we also need to find ways to help each other so that we see the light again. We need to be positive, think beyond ourselves and take care of our fellow beings with heartfelt sincerity. This will help us feel free. I sincerely hope that these difficult times will change soon for the better.

- HAN N AH ARE NDT

ONLY WITHIN THE LIMITS OF NATURE IS FREEDOM POSSIBLE

is freedom p

ossible?

Our Constitution guarantees the freedom to think and speak freely, the freedom to move and associate freely, and recognises our right to privacy. While these rights are not absolute - and certainly can be restricted during a public health emergency - the Covid crisis has exacerbated the consequences of the loss of these freedoms. The burden, unfortunately, has disproportionately fallen on the marginalised and vulnerable sections of society. There was no freedom at all to travel, meet, greet, smile, wine and dine. In the beginning, it sounded like it would be impossible to manage like this for more than a couple of weeks. Now it is 20 months, and there is still no reprieve. But thanks to the pandemic, I have learnt what is unnecessary travel, both for business and for life. I used to travel to various events, wasting time. Now, Clubhouse and Zoom are saving me a lot of time, money and energy. If someone had told me in 2019 that most o us would be working from home full-time, I would have laughed. This also goes to show just how uncertain things are and how hard it is to make predictions. That said, the pandemic era has been a massive adjustment for all of us. We have had to re-evaluate our beliefs about work and personal time completely. I have had to contend with the blurring of lines between work and personal life, and though the general indication seems to be that we have all become more productive,

the blurring of lines between work and personal life, and though the general indication seems to be that we have all become more productive, there’s also a heightened risk of increased burnout among people. This has been a personal challenge for me: learning how to switch off and make more personal time. One thing we did this year is to stop all work-related chats and calls post 6 PM, which has helped. I’m lucky to be comfortable even with everything happening around us. It would be tone-deaf to speak about any loss of personal freedoms. In fact, this has been a blessing in disguise because I get to spend more time with the family. During the pandemic peaks, we were all looking for freedom from extreme anxiety. Every one of us had to consume some bad news daily. Some of our near and dear ones were infected by the virus. So we looked for a way out to help them and lower our level of anxiety. In that backdrop, a vaccine shot has proved to be a great respite. Jabs bestow upon us some degree of freedom from the virus and anxieties. We missed out on a lot. I had to abandon my meditation programmes and curtail my field visits. But the pandemic has given moments to cherish. The extent to which people have gone out of their way to help each other will find a place in my memory forever. Our medical fraternity did a fantastic job. The pandemic has reminded us of our mortality and the importance of friends. We must not take our relationships for granted and work to sustain and deepen them.

DER PANTHER und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.

DER PANTHER Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe so müd geworden, dass er nichts mehr hält. Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt. Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte, der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht, ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte, in der betäubt ein grosser Wille steht. Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille sich lautlos auf -. Dann geht ein Bild hinein, geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille und hört im Herzen auf zu sein. Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903

fear fear 20

All of the included studies were conducted via online platforms, whereas all but one of the studies were cross-sectional in nature (including a mixed-method study, and a comparative study). Most of the studies were conducted among the general population (n = 12), within March and May 2020 (n = 9), from Asian countries (n = 7), and considered a self-developed item for fear of COVID-19 assessment (n = 8; whereas the Fear of COVID-19 Scale was used in 6-studies). The prevalence of fear of COVID-19 was reported to be 18.1–45.2%, although no cutoff point or criteria was mentioned for such a prevalence estimation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. However, females, younger adults, urban residents, divorcees, healthcare workers, those in quarantine settings, those in suspicion of being infected, and those with mental health problems, etc., were found to be at an increased risk of COVID-19 fear.

F e a r o f C O V I D 19 I n f e c t i o n

MEANINGLESS LESSNESS

A AND

REDOM

Depressed or bored?

We begin 2021 still in the midst of a pandemic: still social distancing, still self-isolating, still wearing masks, still feeling as if life is on pause. These restrictions, as necessary as they are, mean that most of us are living in a limited environment with limited activities to occupy ourselves, to satisfy our need for meaningful experiences.The repeated denial of even the possibility of such experiences results in profound moments of boredom directly related to the pandemic: COVID-boredom. After almost a year of pandemic restrictions, many of the social and cultural distractions meant to occupy and entertain us are proving inadequate. A number of people I know have confessed they have been unable to fully binge TV programs because it felt pointless. Even watching the news, which in times of crisis can border on compulsion, has become monotonous. We are presented with the same basic stories, the same series of facts about the virus, the same fears and concerns, repeated over and over with only minor differences. This is why fake news and conspiracy theories have thrived. They have be 26

come “more psychologically pleasing and convenient [than reality]” and make come “more psychologically pleasing and convenient [than reality]” and make “simplersense than a complex phenomenon.” Having to live the reality of life under COVID-19 is proving baffling.

Depressed or bored During the pandemic “boredom” has become a code word for any experience in which people feel disconnected, when life appears meaningless or uninteresting. Psychiatrists have pointed to the distinction between an acute sense of boredom and the clinical diagnosis of depression. While being bored challenges our sense of self, the experience does not carry the serious impairments that define clinical depression. The inability to distinguish between boredom and depression points to a larger problem. It has become harder to tell the difference between experiencing a lack of interest and an inability to experience interest. With COVID-boredom our lack of interest is exaggerated to the point where daily life feels like an existential malaise that seems endless.

Boredom in the pandemic Boredom plays an interesting role in the way of life we lead during the pandemic. Having written on boredom in the past, including co-editing the Boredom Studies Reader, it is fascinating to explore these ideas now. Being bored does not appear to stop people from engaging in apparently pointless activities, but instead pushes us to take on more and more. To solve the problem of our boredom we add layers to the things we are already doing. If bingeing a TV program feels pointless, we start bingeing several programs simultaneously. We engage in more - more watching, more buying, more rethinking our lives - to hyper-stimulate ourselves. But the ironic effect of these added activities seems to be more boredom. Individual activities are now taking on increased significance as they are weighed against the loss of possible experiences we feel like we are missing out on as a result of the pandemic. It is as if people are trying to get too much meaning out of their immediate activities, in order to make up for the sense of a lost future. The pandemic has put so much of life on hold, from work and education to medical procedures and travel. Decisions are being postponed, plans put off as we wait for the moment we can un-pause our lives.

n her new book about the outbreak in Wuhan, Chinese author Fang Fang writes: “And now, although we are no longer living in terror and the sadness has dissipated a bit, we must face an indescribable boredom and restlessness, along with endless waiting.” Here she captures how COVID-boredom is the other side of an overarching anxiety about the pandemic and its consequences. Like the layers of stress and worry that can be felt throughout the world as the pandemic lasts longer and longer, our boredom with this reality is also layered. Boredom in the pandemic is not a single experience, but rather layers of boring experiences that together feel personally overwhelming. In many ways, people are bored with being bored, which is why we see it as depression. But this indescribable boredom asks us important questions about the ways we are thinking about this feeling of life being on pause. 27

AD AD AD

DICTION DICTION DICTION 29

Pandemic-related stress, anxiety and isolation, in addition to disrupted treatment and recovery programs, can increase the likelihood of substance misuse, addiction and relapse. Unemployment tends to contribute to increased spikes in substance abuse (18). As of May 2020, 39% of Americans lost their jobs or had their work hours curtailed due to the pandemic (19). The stress of financial uncertainty along with an increase in free time and the absence of employment repercussions can lead people to seek ongoing solace from illicit drugs. Data from the first quarter of 2020 demonstrate the effects of COVID-19 on substance abuse among Americans. From January to March of 2020, 19,146 people died from drug overdoses, compared to 16,682 people in the same quarter of 2019. The CDC estimated a record number of US drug-related deaths in 2020 (20).

SUBSTANCE USE BEHAVIORS AND This study, which examined the DISORDERS impact of COVID-19 on individu-

als with SUDs, found that 74% of respondents said they had noticed changes in their emotions since the pandemic began (21). Twenty percent of respondents reported an increase in substance use, and 1% reported being impacted by experiencing a fatal overdose since the onset of the pandemic (21). Close to 5% (4.2%) of respondents reported an overdose

UNC ER T AIN 33

Young pe

very uncer future pandemic

ople face a tain AFTER the

Dealing with Uncertainty

While we may not wish to acknowledge it, uncertainty is a natural and unavoidable part of life. Very little

Learning to cope with uncertainty

Uncertainty is all around us, never more so than today. Whether it concerns a global pandemic, the economy, or your finances, health, and relationships, much of what lies ahead in life remains uncertain. Yet as human beings, we crave security. We want to feel safe and have a sense of control over our lives and well-being. Fear and uncertainty can leave you feeling stressed, anxious, and powerless over the direction of your life. It can drain you emotionally and trap you in a downward spiral of endless “what-ifs” and worst-case scenarios about what tomorrow may bring.We’re all different in how much uncertainty we can tolerate in life. Some people seem to enjoy taking risks and living unpredictable lives, while others find the randomness of life deeply distressing. But all of us have a limit. If you feel overwhelmed by uncertainty and worry, it’s important to know that you’re not alone; many of us are in the same boat. It’s also important to realize that no matter how helpless and hopeless you feel, there are steps you can take to better deal with uncontrollable circumstances, alleviate your anxiety, and face the unknown with more confidence.

The role of uncertainty in life

To cope with all this uncertainty, many of us use worrying as a tool for trying to predict the future and avoid nasty surprises. Worrying can make it seem like you have some control over uncertain circumstances. You may believe that it will help you find a solution to your problems or prepare you for the worst. Maybe if you just agonize over a problem long enough, just think through every possibility, or read every opinion online, you’ll find a solution and be able to control the outcome. Unfortunately, none of this works. Chronic worrying can’t give you more control over uncontrollable events; it just robs you of enjoyment in the present, saps your energy, and keeps you up at night. But there are healthier ways to cope with uncertainty-and that begins with adjusting your mindset.

about our lives is constant or totally certain, and while we have control over many things, we can’t control everything that happens to us. As the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated, life can change very quickly and very unpredictably. One day things may be just fine, the next you’ve suddenly become sick, lost your job, or found yourself struggling to put food on the table or provide for your family.

FUT URE?

You can’t predict or control the future. You can only adapt. You can, however, live in the present. - Raghav Mathur, RPM Euro Games

CREDITS

Articles

p.4 Mental Health Foundation (15.12.21) p.7 by Kendra Cherry in verywellmind (01.09.21) p.8 by Ceren Hayran, Lalin Anik in National Library of Medicine (18.02.21) p.14 in The Economic Times (14.08.21) p.19 Rainer Maria Rilke (1903) p.22 by Elnara Shafiyeva in Frontiers in Psychiatry (07.09.21) p.26 in The Conversation (07.02.21) p.31 by Giuseppe Bersani in Frontiers in Psychiatry (15.01.21) p.36 by Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, M.A. in Help Guide (Oct.21)

Photos by Hannah Dusch