Check Your Mental Health
Hello, anxious people!! I see you!
I also see those of you who are not anxious whatsoever—the five-alarm extroverts among us—the folks who won’t hesitate for a MINUTE to hug, kiss, and slobber all over the rest of us once you’ve had your vaccine.
I’m here for you, too.
Regardless of your pandemic experience—from newfound serenity to round-the-clock agitation—we ALL have to face the transition to normal. And for some of us, it’s causing anxiety.
I am calling it “FONO” or Fear of Normal.
The Washington Post published my opinion piece about it this week! I hope you read it and share it widely.
Apparently more than just a few people are feeling un-done by the prospect of reentry, because suddenly my phone started ringing.
So yesterday I got to talk even more about the mental health toll of the pandemic on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace.
What’s going on (aside from my need for a stronger antiperspirant)??
As more and more of us roll up our sleeves for the vaccine, we’ll be able to gradually resume essential parts of our lives—from hugging to traveling to eating in restaurants—without fear.
Connecting with loved ones is essential for our health and wellbeing, and when the risk of vaccinated people sickening one another is essentially zero, we should do it.
This week, the CDC (finally) recognized our broad human needs by lifting restrictions on vaccinated people visiting one another. The new guidelines also allow vaccinated people to visit a single household of unvaccinated people because (as you savvy readers understand by now) a single household is essentially sharing the same air and is considered a single “pod.”
I’ll pause here for anyone whose FONO is flaring just by reading the above. “How can that be safe,” you ask, “for vaccinated people to see unvaccinated people??!??”
Let’s play out a worst case scenario: a vaccinated person visits an unvaccinated family member who is silently carrying coronavirus and then transmits it to the vaccinated person. What would happen? Probably nothing. (And on the off-chance that the vaccinated person gets infected, they would most likely have a cold.) What about the vaccinated person? you ask. Can’t they sicken the unvaccinated person? The science is abundantly clear that vaccinated people are less likely to transmit and infect other people, but of course it’s not impossible.
Recall from my post earlier this week that it’s not biologically possible for a vaccine to “sterilize” the recipient (that is, to rid our bodies of any chance of silent carriage of the virus). Moreover, it’s not even necessary.
In short, we can start to resume essential parts of our lives when we understand the science, assess risk based on facts, and then re-learn how to tolerate small risks (like we have our whole lives).
Of course even with the new guidelines, unvaccinated people—and vaccinated folks in public—still need to mask and distance from other people until we have achieved herd immunity.
The good news? We are getting there.
The less good news? Transitions are hard.
Even though the vaccine offers a path to normalcy— the chance to work, worship, love, and play like we used to—it’s not always clear that we want a new normal.
Regardless of our pandemic experience, each of us will have some sort of emotional experience facing change. After a twelve-month (and ongoing) collective trauma, we should expect it.
Vaccination against COVID is crucial for health and safety. So are naming, normalizing, and navigating fears about reentry.
The pandemic has laid bare the critical importance of considering our mental health. Our mental health not only informs our everyday thoughts, habits, and behaviors, it directly affects our physical health and medical outcomes.
Let’s address it like any other component of health. Let’s talk about how we feel with our friends, family, pastors, pets, and therapists. Hell, talk to the wall if you need to! Write down your thoughts. Sort, catalogue, and laugh at your internal musings.
Let’s exercise, get out in nature, prioritize sleep, eat decent meals, turn off our smartphones, connect with loved ones, and take care of our bodies and minds in tandem.
I will see you next week. Until then, be well.
P.S. Join me and Professor Emily Oster, PhD, on Sunday, March 14 at 8 pm ET on Instagram Live to talk about schools, safety, and SANITY upon re-entry.