5 minute read
HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?
HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? BY DIANE COOKE
Everyone has a story to tell about coping during the spring lockdown. Some are happy to spend time in isolation, others have felt desperately lonely.
Most of us learned something about ourselves.
It’s not just us – TV presenter Gok Wan had a “really, really tough time” during lockdown.
So, too, did former Labour Party communications director Alastair Campbell.
Gok struggled isolating alone with just his dog Dolly. The ‘Say Yes to the Dress Lancashire’
Alastair Campbell presenter told Heat magazine: “I was tired and so busy all the time. Then, all of a sudden, my world stopped. I couldn’t use work as a form of escapism, so I had to sit and think and analyse what was going on in my world.” Alastair Campbell suffered one of his darkest episodes during the last few weeks of lockdown. He told a BBC documentary: “I have had a lot of suicidal ideation... when you are like that, you don’t think there is light at the end of the tunnel. You only feel the light at the end of the tunnel when it begins to lift.” Both took positives from the experience. Gok overcame his personal hang-up of not being intelligent enough by watching documentaries and reading. He also started cooking and delivering food to neighbours. And he realised being single wasn’t at all bad. “Before lockdown, I would probably have spent the whole time saying, ‘Arrrrghhh! Why am I still single?’ But I haven’t got any of that stuff going on now, I’m just really grateful I can see my mates.”
I hated having my liberty taken away from me.
For Alastair Campbell, exercise, eating well, sleeping well and keeping his family close all helped during the dark times. Interviewing other people about depression also opened his eyes to how many people are battling similar issues.
“That showed me that at least I am not on my own with this - and that helps.” If life in lockdown has shown us one thing it’s that when the going gets tough we have an inbuilt ability to cope – we’re resilient.
Can we grow from this? (see page 24)
WHAT IS RESILIENCE?
CAN WE GROW FROM THIS?
Resilience involves “bouncing back” from difficult experiences, but it can also bring about profound personal growth.
Mersey Care assistant psychologist Jack Newton works with patients who have experienced extreme traumas in their lives, often as children.
He feels that as a nation we should adopt what clinicians call a trauma informed approach to help people heal and move forward from the pandemic. Here, rather than offer direct therapy or interventions, the focus is on creating safe environments and highlighting the importance of relationships to help build resilience. “People are suffering what we call vicarious trauma. They may not have had direct contact with COVID-19, but by watching the news, for example, they can be affected”. Although we’re facing the same situation we react differently, often based on our previous life experiences. “Someone who spends a lot of time with others may find being alone during lockdown difficult. They might not have resilience in that area. Whereas another person in a similar situation might have had experience living a fairly solitary life, so may have already built up resilience because of their previous circumstances”, says Jack. The key principles of a trauma informed approach to caring for someone is to restore their sense of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, empowerment and attend to intersectionality. COVID-19, he says, has compromised each of these in many of us. “Our sense of individual and collective safety has been removed. Our choice of control over our daily lives has been lost, along with our sense of empowerment, all in a pervasive feeling of powerlessness. “Trustworthiness may have been damaged in the government’s handling of certain aspects of the pandemic, while some minority groups in the UK have suffered more than others, particularly the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, undercutting ‘intersectionality’.” Jack uses a Tree of Life model as an example for us to recognise that we are the authors of our own lives, and to change our stories of trauma and loss into a story of resilience. People are invited to each draw a tree where roots, trunk, leaves etc. represent their own origins, experiences and emotions. Jack explains how the pandemic has affected our own Tree of Life. “During lockdown the ground under that person’s ‘tree’ has been shaken by a fundamental change in their daily lives. Likewise, their ‘branches’ may
Jack Newton assistant psychologist.
be troubled, in that their hopes and wishes for the future are now uncertain – they may not be able to see an end to their hardships. Leaves may have fallen from their trees if they have lost family members or friends to the virus.”
“By coming together to form our ‘Forests of Life’, people can acknowledge that, even though we are not out of the woods yet, we are collectively building our resilience to be in the best position possible to weather any future storms.”
Jack has written about Resilience and the Tree of Life in The Psychologist magazine. Read the article at:
