Coronavirus: Surviving the Looming Mental Health Crisis

For the past two weeks, my sense of time and agency has completely gone out the window. Work usually gets done… later rather than sooner, and sometimes never. My life now possesses a background ambiance of anxiety, whispering that somewhere, something important needs doing, yet when I open my calendar, almost everything is canceled, abandoned, or indefinitely postponed.

There’s a name for this constant sense that there’s no reason to do anything today because, fuck it, what’s the point? Depression. And on days like today, I feel myself slowly slipping into it. Judging from my email inbox, I am not even close to the only one.

Nothing has all of the ingredients for the emotional breakdown recipe quite like a pandemic-induced global shutdown. Lack of face-to-face socializing and general social isolation? Check. Financial uncertainty and mass unemployment? Check. Lack of regular exercise, sunlight, and access to basic necessities? Check. High uncertainty of one’s safety and security in the near future? Check. Tons of free-time to refresh news feeds five thousand times per day? Double check.

So far, I rarely feel depressed and lethargic for more than a day or two at a time. I’ll have a shit day like today, but generally, by tomorrow, I’m functional and mostly happy again.