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 |   Mental Health Writers Alliance Monthly Challenge |
I will lay forth a disclaimer before I write this post - I may well have a different opinion after a few weeks of this. Also, the UK is not (as I write) on lockdown, I can go to the shops, take a walk around the park or along the river, and I'm even still in work 2 or 3 days a week (although I don't think that will be the case for much longer as Councils across England shut down.) ON paper, I am also fairly lucky, I have no underlying health conditions (that I know of), and am not of an age, which could be adversely affected by COVID 19. I am in a job which will pay me my regular salary whether I am off sick, or whether I work from home. I live alone, in a secure managed apartment block, which is walking distance to shops/pharmacies etc. I have friends and family who will help me out if I need anything. My immediate family are all (touch wood) fairly healthy. So far my brother in law has come down with the virus but is recovering well. I have plenty of food in my cupboards/fridge/freezer and I even have 2 bottles of liquid soap and thirteen toilet rolls!   What I am trying to say, I suppose, is that I am not feeling worried or concerned about the virus from a personal point of view, or the effect it will have on me and my family. That's not to say I don't give a shit about anyone else, of course I do. I have a load of homeless customers I'm concerned about, and I feel really bad for all those people who are self employed and not getting any pay, or people who can't afford to stockpile because they are on benefits, and NHS workers who are putting their life at risk, and a friend of mine who is being treated for cancer so his immune system is probably really fucked. BUT I think everyone will agree, no matter how virtuous we try to be, the human condition is to look after yourself and your own, and so the majority of people are always going to more worried about that. SO this brings me to my point......If you feel fairly secure medically, and financially, then this leaves you with one thing - SOCIAL ISOLATION This means that we have to spend most of our time in our flats or houses not going out, or seeing other people. But what if this is what you do pretty much all the time anyway? What if you already spend much of your time feeling "socially isolated"? What if your isolation is because you don't get it, you don't fit in with society's ideas of being a person? What if you happen to be single in a world full of couples? What if this is already affecting your mental health? I will put forward something to you - Perhaps it is not so bad being on your own, in your flat or house, if you know everyone else is on their own, in their flat or house. If everyone else is reduced to texting and e-mailing and phoning their friends and family. Perhaps it is not so bad, not having a good time, if no-one else is out there having a good time. Perhaps it isn't so bad, not having to freak out trying to do your hair and make up so you don't look fucking hideous going out to some pointless social or another to meet a load of people you don't know where you can have fake conversations with 15 people - because that's better that being in your flat alone isn't it? If social isolation is the norm, then maybe no-one actually has to feel socially isolated......In a way, Maybe it is better for your mental health.         |
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