The pandemic like for most people has also been dramatically damaging to my own mental health; well being, and truly just the fact that I miss my friends and their families whom are stuck or locked down themselves. In the face of the pandemic, I’ve learned so much about myself and the fact that I now have mental health issues that I was not nor had I ever thought I would ever have.
Living in a pandemic has induced a sense of irrevresible anxiety at almost every step that I take. Some people argue that such could be brought on by the politics of it, but, I’d rather argue that it is largely brought on by people who don’t believe it is real and those who don’t care if they pass it on to you. I’ve learned to be confident in the face of this by simply standing my ground in the face of those who think it is okay to invade personal space at a time that it is now more important than ever not to do so.
I live in Tennessee. A place where you guessed it you’ll find the very same people we’re told are good people by Donald Trump. I’ve seen people get chased off the road; through grocery stores, verbally and even physically assaulted by these people for simply taking a public health emergency seriously. It is anxiety inducing as it is scary because while we may not fully understand what this is one wrong move and the right host for this virus an innocent life is lost.
The thought of being thousands of miles from home (my parents retired and moved to Spain two years ago) is nonetheless a larger part of the problem. I’m surrounded by people who want nothing more than to “Own the libs” for no reason other than to just “own the libs” even if it means killing everybody in their path. The mental health struggles that have come with this virus have upended what was an ordinary life and demanded a review of the very environment I had once called my comfortable home.
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