PERCEPTIONS OF THE PANDEMIC
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PERCEPTIONS OF THE PANDEMIC As we enter the second year of this pandemic, I have been witnessing a lot of what I call “secondary casualties”. Can we even begin to assess the collateral damage of the crisis? It is important to understand the long-term impact on society as a result of current actions either forced or self-imposed to contain the crisis. Millions of people worldwide have sadly died from the coronavirus, but there has been enormous intangible loss as well. Companies and businesses have shut their doors, people have moved to other countries to find some solace in re-building a life, and relationships have been torn apart. From where I stand as a mental health practitioner, the loss of relationships has been the most unbearable part for people to bear. WRITER: SHRUTI TEKWANI LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR, CERTIFIED COACH, CHOICE THEORY & REALITY THERAPY TRAINER
Initially when the world locked down, people feared the unknown and longdistance relationships were tested. There seemed to be this energy worldwide that was filled with anxiety, curiosity, a touch of productivity for some. People cleaned out spaces they had not touched in years, they signed up to learn languages virtually that
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they had always dreamed of learning. There was an interest in using this time wisely to do things there would otherwise never be time for. The mentality seemed to be “since I’m stuck at home anyway, I might as well make the best of it”. Then as the weeks went by, almost every relationship in our lives became a long-distance one. If you
had a ritual to have a glass of wine with your coworkers every Friday after work, that ritual stopped overnight and the time with coworkers stopped existing as well. Some made the effort to continue relationships over Zoom and others experienced Zoom fatigue very quickly, making it difficult to continue those relationships.
