Not Feeling the Same since COVID-19 Lockdowns?

You’re absolutely not alone.

We experienced life changes that showed us how different the world could be - both in our expectations of how people would show up for each other, but also in watching the world adapt to be more inclusive and then slowly take that all away.

The level of trust people have in the government to respond has changed.

The level of trust people have in positions of power to make decisions off science and up-to-date information & research has changed.

The amount of safety people feel in their community has changed.

The amount of safety people in the information they consume online has changed.

People’s relationship to money has changed.

People’s relationship to group events has changed.

People’s understanding of protecting their own health and others has changed.

People’s understanding of the intersection of systems has changed.

It is so human of you to feel different in response to all of that.

It is so human of you to have more to grieve, to have resentment or frustration, to be confused and uncertain, to have new sensory desires (less noise, more soft textures, desire to eat food from the earth, smaller groups, etc), to undertake a new level of being informed about public health.

It makes so much sense to not feel the same as you did before you knew a virus was spreading around the world that disables people.

It makes so much sense to feel like your value are different and you want to live into them accordingly.

In a world that talks about COVID-19 less, has tried to declassify it has a pandemic (when it still is), takes precautions less, and has tried to go “back-to-normal” - the space for your continued processing may be a space like therapy.

Therapy may be the space for you to practice setting boundaries about your health and wellbeing, interrogate how it feels to be living how we are three years post-lockdowns and five years after the first outbreak, explore how to be COVID conscious in your day-to-day life, and feel through all the feelings that have coursed through you since 2020.

It is not the only space for this, but it may be an important space in figuring out why you just don’t feel quite like yourself.

Dr. S