Mental health and CoVid-19

Found 2020 not great, but 2021 was a year worse than the one when I endured massive life-changing surgery plus a broken foot one after the other. That year I had absolutely tons of personal support whereas 2021 is a year I want to forget very fast for a number of reasons, the pandemic having had a certain determination in events. However I am very fortunate compared to others in that I did not get Covid, nor did anybody close to me get it.

Omicron has quite a different nature to it. It could make you feel like cr@p, or you could have few or almost no symptoms, but you can be reasonably confident it will be a nasty inconvenience rather than deadly. Just over an unpleasant bout of bacterial lobar pneumonia myself, not related to Covid, but felt woeful, coughing rusty blood etc. I’ve had occasional influenzas over the decades, they can absolutely floor you, but since getting regular influenza vaccines I haven’t had that particular type of horrible illness since. I have every confidence we will be ok, but naturally it’s going to take time to really feel it and believe it.

I think posting those two things beside each other says nothing at all - at best - but could be quite misleading at worst. Posting the images without anything else also leaves it unclear what your intention / message / point even is.

It sure looks like you are trying to suggest there is some contradiction or hypocrisy in play. But who knows you might be trying to say "Use gaming to improve your mental health during the pandemic - but do so responsibly and be aware that it can be addictive too".

The former would be a very bad and ill informed message the latter quite a good one. But it is entirely unclear from your post which you intended - so it is as equally easy to mistakenly "strawman" you as it is to mistakenly "steelman" you here.

Think about posting two similar things about - say - food. On one side speaking about eating this that or the other to stay healthy and happy. And on the other side speaking about how obesity and over eating and so forth is detrimental.

In other words - the two are not mutually exclusive and one says very little about the other.

Eating well and often is a good thing. Gaming well and often can also be a good thing. It can be socially stimulating. Mentally stimulating. And more. Alcohol can be relaxing and helpful and even healthy too if used responsibly and in moderation.

But like eating too much food or drinking too much alcohol - addiction or over use of anything, including gaming, can indeed be detrimental. Or put another way: Addiction is the issue, not gaming per se. Addiction to anything. And if the WHO have recognized gaming addiction in their list of addictions that's a good thing.

But that recognition says nothing at all about gaming itself - so we should be wary of being simplistic about any messaging there or how we interpret that messaging. There are many things we can use to get through things like pandemics and lockdowns. Including computer gaming. But pandemics and lockdowns could also be an environment fostering over use or over reliance on those things too. And it is good to be aware of that for sure.

This loss of identity is something I have seen mentioned by a few people in a few contexts on and off line. Seems to be a hell of a lot more common than I originally thought. Love him or hate him the most recent Blindboy episode is about this exact thing - and how Blindboy identified it in himself. He also made a tweet asking if anyone is experiencing similar loss of identity and he apparently got 1000s of replies. Though I do not and will not use twitter so I did not confirm that claim myself :)

I suppose one positive way to look at it would be to see it as an opportunity for self reinvention. A lot of people have habits and routines and investments of time they do out of no motivation other than it's what they have always done. So it is a chance now to look at all those things we used to do and actually work out which ones were important to us and keep them - and how many we can just let go.

Before the pandemic we were all invested in diverse things. So how hard it hit our personal identities is going to likely relate to how much the pandemic impacted our personal pursuits. For example I get a lot of physical and mental health benefits and well being from Brazilian Jujitsu and a few related martial arts. When all the schools got shut down this hit me hard for a time.

I am not a counselor SnuggyBear so I would be hesitant to directly recommend anything to you other than talking with a professional. But I can still mention things that have helped me or helped people around me in the past. An investment in martial arts and other physical activity have been known to reduce depression, aggression and anxieties. They can also improve empathy humility and a more internal locus of evaluation and self worth.

Random acts of human kindness are another source of improving our self worth, empathy and relationships with people in general. Maybe that could support you in some way. It is something I try to do when I can. Too often to give you a short list of examples. It really comes down to what's available to you. A random example for example is during heavy rain if I am not doing anything at the time - I might go out in the car and listen to some music or podcasts for myself. But I am on the look out for people like maybe little old ladies trying to get their shopping home in the rain. And I will pull up and get them home. But in general the community around us offers 1000s of chances for random acts of kindness. We just have to make ourselves aware of them.

Other than that sleep and diet is important. Finding what works for you rather than taking anyone on word when they are promoting one life style. What works for one might fail for another. I tried a lot of fad diets for a long time before I found what works for me. And now I found the diet that works for me - massively increasing my energy, motivation, sexual capacity, physical strength and endurance and so on - and so I cling to it.

Above all remember that the pandemic was on one level or another a trauma for us all. To varying degrees many of us are suffering from a kind of post traumatic disorder. While many of us are still mentally on edge looking for the next threat or disaster. Attending a counselor can help with this of course if time or money allows. But if not (and unfortunately for all too many, its not an option at all) the best we can do is look at all the varied things others have done to successfully get through it all - try them all ourselves - keep what works for us ourselves - and discard the rest.

My mental health has been affected for the worse - I'm getting myself together again lately. For me it wasn't the pandemic that was the issue, it was an initial belief in the "authorities" coupled with my scientific interest in the pandemic that over time gradually eroded to the point I find it impossible to believe anything on mainstream media.

I eagerly awaited my vaccines and was forever looking at data, initially in Israel, to see a fall off in deaths (which did happen) and cases (which didn't). Medical people saying vaccines don't stop transmission - er yeah many of them do, just not this one !!! It DOES work for serious illness, as far as I can tell.

Then obvious nonsense like full supermarkets while click and collect at the same time was banned for the small business, the Gardai at one point guarding easter eggs, and wide open spaces with 1 person per square km, and the riot squad sent into South William St on the people enjoying an outdoor summer. Mandatory hotel quarantine. Very few official dissenting voices.

It scares the living hell out of me that it's so easy to destroy democracy.