Pandemics, Poverty, and Mental Health
The dull stress of the late pandemic is a kind of window into what a lot of people live with all the time.
As the pandemic drags into its second year, the tone of the coverage about day to day life has shifted. The most fortunate among us have been the most likely to do nothing: not go into a workplace, not go into a hospital or nursing home, not go to a grocery store, not travel, with all the attendant risks.
What this looks a lot like is depression. The New York Times ran a popular story about “languishing”: “a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.”
This was on the heels of another piece about boredom: “perceiving one’s ‘activities as meaningless,’” “limited in your control over the situation.” And one about “hitting the wall”:
“When people are under a long period of chronic, unpredictable stress, they develop behavioral anhedonia,” Dr. Wehrenberg said, meaning the loss of the ability to take pleasure in their activities. “And so they get lethargic, and they show a lack of interest — and obviously that plays a huge role in productivity.”
