The corona is over for now, so why are we all unhappy?

The omicron wave is behind us and that means it is seemingly possible to get back to routine.

So why are more and more people having a hard time getting back to life and what can be done, if at all?

Maor Moiger

22/08/2021

Sunday, 22 August 2021, 07:51 Updated: Tuesday, 22 February 2022, 08:40

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

Five things you may not have known about the brain ("Do not miss" system)

When looking at what the world has been going through and specifically our little country since the beginning of 2020, it's pretty hard not to be left with an open mouth.

Even in our personal lives, there is hardly a person who has not experienced some change in his mental state during the corona period, in which our collective dreams were mainly directed to one thing - to return to routine.

So last week, it seems, we all got what we wanted so badly.

Suddenly the traffic jams returned to the roads in full drama, the workers went back to grumbling about Sundays in the office and the children, they are no longer required for the oppressive isolations we experienced in previous waves.

So how exactly after we get everything we wish for - do we feel happier than ever?

More on Walla!

We are all tired of the corona - and it can have a very dangerous effect

To the full article

This question, unsurprisingly, is not unique to Israel alone.

During the Corona Crisis, many around the world tried to estimate what would happen in the "day after".

Now that the "day after" is already behind us (hopefully), and the wave of the omicron has faded, experts are trying to explain why it feels different from what we might have expected.

One of these experts is Dr. Carsten Conan, an expert in psychiatric epidemiology

(yes, there is such a thing), from the prestigious Harvard University.

Mental illness can also spread in the population and what are the factors that influence it.

The traffic jams have returned to our lives.

Traffic jam on Ayalon lanes (Photo: Reuven Castro)

In an article published by Harvard University, Conan explains how our attempts to return to the routine we were accustomed to before the Corona may do more harm than good.

"Now that we're so used to thinking leaving the house is a dangerous thing to do, we may feel sad or even sad that actions that once seemed normal to us no longer feel that way. I think that's part of the change we all experience today."

The expectation gap

Conan, like many experts, believes that the desire for things to return to the way they were before the Corona era is a fantasy that will probably no longer come true.

And so, this gap, between what we expect to happen and life itself - causes suffering and unrest.

According to her, even before the days of the plague, changes would put a lot of pressure on our lives.

In doing so she also refers to happy events like a wedding, or even getting a dream job at work.

And in those two years, as in a global reality show, all of these emotions were inflated and intensified, to the point that none of us, even the greatest mental health experts, could have foreseen.

Despite all this, many try to sweep the storm of emotions they experience under the rug and return to exactly the same life they were used to in the past.

It is like people who after months of idleness return to sticking to the same training program they stuck to a few years ago only to get up in the morning with a sore and busy body that is barely functioning.

More on Walla!

• "The New Normal": Is it time to say goodbye to the reality you know?

• "Cave Syndrome": The mental phenomenon that has expanded under the auspices of the corona

• Suffering from back pain?

  A smart device has cured the pain for hundreds of thousands worldwide

Dr. Kevin Larkin, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of West Virginia, also believes that striving to return to routine as quickly as possible does more harm than good.

We always tend to add more and more information to it - but never make room for it.

Of course we can not forget the experiences we have had lately but we can control the way we progress from here. "

So how do we really progress from here? When going through many articles written by experts on the subject - everyone ends up saying the same thing. Things slowly.Return to a routine gradually and without expectations that everything will be exactly as it once was.If difficult, take off tasks from yourself, instead of going into a loop of not meeting expectations, self-disappointment and increasing the load, to perhaps feel better about yourself.

Do not expect everything to be as it used to be.

People in a restaurant (Photo: Niv Aharonson)

Instead of worrying about how bad you feel right now with a return to routine, think about in which cases the challenging period of closures and limitations actually did you good - and try to recreate that now as well.

Did you like to start the morning without standing in traffic jams?

Try talking to the boss about a hybrid model where you will combine work at home and in the office.

Did you enjoy watching movies all weekend instead of cramming into crowded clubs? Also allow yourself to clear your schedule of social events to devote time to yourself.

It is said that in every evil there is a good and this period also taught us important lessons.

Your ability to adapt to and grow from the changes is what will largely define what the next few years in your life will look like, whether they include more toxic elections, a precarious security situation, epidemics or crazy weather.

The more you become aware of what is going on inside your brain, ask yourself more questions and examine why you are feeling what you are feeling - this adaptation will only become simpler.

This does not mean that you will not experience more crises, but according to the all-too-Israeli-IDF cliché, they will only harden you instead of making you break down.

Do not miss the kids

And with all that we have said so far, it is important to understand that there is a difference between how we, the adults, will deal with returning to routine, and how children who return to frames after two chaotic years will do so.

Of course, no one knows what the coming school year will look like - but there is one thing that experts already know how to determine - children are going to have a harder time with it than usual.

Dr. Conan believes, unsurprisingly, that the more time children spend in distance learning, the greater their difficulty in reintegrating into frontal learning. Therefore, she emphasizes that today it is more important than ever to identify signs of distress in children, to make it clear to them that they can always share with you with difficulty and especially not to judge them when they tell you about the challenges or when teachers say they have disturbed the class.

"This year is going to be tough," she honestly estimates.

"We like to think we are in control, we like to think we can predict the future. The real challenge is that we will all have to live from now on with a great deal of uncertainty."

• health

• psychology

Tags

• Corona

• psychology

• Omicron variant

• Traffic jams

• Children

• School

• anxiety

• pressure