When They Are Losing Their Minds During COVID-19 Confinement

             

Calm days will come again.

     Most of you know that I have been talking about emergencies, sheltering-in-place, and emergency food supplies for many years. On this blog alone, I have discussed various aspects of family disaster preparedness for ten years.  I have also discussed or alluded to mental health issues which occur as a result of disasters or emergencies, also for ten years. At the bottom of this article, I am going to list the prior posts which touch on mental health issues in emergencies, that I have written in the course of the existence of this particular blog.

                   Although this was inevitable, it's still disturbing to see. Since all of us went into seclusion at different times across the US, there is no way of calculating how long many of us have been locked up at home.  Many people are also enduring the stress of having a job you can't return to, and the resultant stress and fear that they will be unable to pay rent, a mortgage, electricity, car payments or buy food.  Some of us are insulated from some of this, but many of us are not. 

                   It is therefore not a surprise to see that on social media, a percentage of people are no longer rational.  Some are talking about forgetting all of it and going back to work and sending their kids outside to school, even though school has been cancelled for the rest of the year, and the doors to work are still locked. Restaurants and bars are still closed. They are not thinking clearly. Some cannot be reasoned with, and that makes them dangerous.

                   There is not much you can do for those determined to get back out there. All you can do is try to calmly keep those within your own family thinking normally, and being hopeful as we edge toward a gradual lifting of the necessary restrictions which presently encumber our nation and its economy.  It isn't just the United States that is restricted.   I speak daily with people in Italy, France and the UK, and they are enduring similar stresses, sorrows and fears.

                 Please know that as with every challenge that befalls us here on Earth, it IS temporary. It will eventually fall away.  Yes, there will be some negative fallout as a result of this one for some time, but we will weather it and overcome it also.

      

Prior posts that may be of value during this time:


https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2015/02/thoughts-on-mental-hygiene.html

 https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-reprise-value-of-connections.html

https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-value-of-diphenhydramine-in-us.html

https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2014/08/basic-strategies-for-safetyshould-ebola.html

https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2015/08/not-about-racism-not-about-guns-its.html

https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2015/08/when-you-talk-about-preparedness-with.html

https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2014/04/reality-check.html

 https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2013/12/dementia-and-preparedness.html