I’d like to say I initially planned to call this blog post ‘frustrations’, but that isn’t the case.
I started and stopped this computer 3-4 times, and the blog is continuing to want to open as if I am viewing it instead of working on it. Now, as I begin to write, I realize the wordpress.com app has an update so I did that and waited.
(that was a very short time, so I’m able to continue to write)
I participate in trauma recovery daily. I work in trauma, as a mental health therapist who listens to stories about trauma.
I am trained and informed in Trauma Informed Care (TIC); Trauma-Focused and Cognitive Behaviorally Trained (TF-CBT).
and
I am also living in, through, and working together with those who are trauma affected by the pandemic we are currently experiencing. The pandemic is fairly traumatic, so I’m using the word a lot and I’m attempting to use it accurately.
As the pandemic began in March of 2019, the effects were quite unclear to me. My grandmother lived through the Flu (frequently referred to as the Spanish Flu) in 1919 and talked to me about it, a little bit, when I was a kid and I would ask her about it.
‘Grandma??’ I would say, with a question in my voice to show I wanted her to answer and was pretty curious…
…..’yessss……’, she would say, again, with pleasure in her voice because she talked like that.
‘How come you were born in 1910, but graduated in 1929, but you didn’t repeat a year in school?’
That last quesiton was because those of us born in the first year of the decade (ends in ‘0’) tend to remember our birth year and others’, and, like I said, I was pretty darn curious.
She would then answer me with a little bit of laughter in her voice, a little bit of frustration, and would then again be a little bit misleading; because her experience with the pandemic in 1919 was not really my busines, nor did I need to know the answer, but eventually she told me.
‘I was ill one year, or actually, I was ill later in the year. The schools closed for the first half of the year, and then I got sick.’
So she missed a year of school, which was true, did not repeat a grade, which was also true. And I, the granddaughter of Eva and a child with lots of curiosity and questions, had my answer.
So, I moved on to different questions, different thoughts, and different experiences as I grew up to be just right about 50 years old.
2020 is also decade year, or ends in zero. And I, as a 50 year old rising, was busy getting ready for things like creating income as a mental health therapist/writer; my children graduating from college; and I was preparing to make income during the time that was just prior to COVID at the group practice I am contracted with, Blank Slate Therapy. (March 2020)
Emerging and Gathering in Crowds
So as we begin to get together into bigger groups, the COVID 19 virus is mutating into a less deadly, more able to travel form, for those able who have chosen to be vaccinated, at least. The hospitals seem to be filled with unvaccinated people, from what I have learned.
I’m fairly certain that the cold virus has been doing this ever since people began to to work to create an immunization it.
I see larger crowds, as a resident in Texas, a little more often than people in some other states do. My son who lives in Wisconsin has had a very different COVID experience than my husband or me, since Wisconsin’s mandates related to the virus have been quite different than the Texas ones.
When I see a crowd of people on television, it does not really have an affect on me. I haven’t been watching much television for several months due to how often the warning voices of the newscasters get my attention. I prefer an upbeat tone, with optimism in it.
Some of those who have been guiding the national newscasters, or perhaps even the newscasters themselves, have determined that if you use a very scary, deadly voice people will listen. I do listen, but the fear that the voice induces in me is not pleasurable
I’m noticing that synching back from COVID is as difficult for some people as synching into it was for others. I would guess that a lot of the same people struggle with synching back and forth, which is a sensitivity, and also affected by the pandemic, routine shifts, and change. Highly Sensitive People, (HSP) and Highly Sensitive Children, coined by Elaine Aron, are more sensitive than others and tend to be more affected by routine changes, as well as smells, fabrics, and anything else that can be classified to make people sensitive.
Reading Elaine Aron’s books about ‘Highly Sensitive People‘ and her book about ‘Highly Sensitive Children‘ helps with understanding how sensitivities are affecting parenting and yourself.
Some Examples
I have gmail accounts for different purposes; and this is a complication that is frustrating to me. That’s a frustration that I’ve been having at times, but not quite a often as I was, during the quarantining and trauma we’re experiencing during and through this pandemic.
If I log out of my gmail logged into one account, I have to take some steps to show gmail that ‘I’m really me’. This causes me to experience an amount of frustration.
The computer that I’m using is particularly impacting my level of frustration, regarding Google Suites and how it affects my MacBook Pro.
The computer example is that g-suites tends to take over and decide that the email owned by me, my place of work, or the place I work on a non-profit board, is my ‘primary email’. Every time that I fairly consistently use each.
What Can You Do
We are all living through this pandemic and have had some changes in our experiences or have been affected by it in some way.
As we work to stay healthy, emerge to experience those all important social connections, and continue to work, parent, and exist, there are some important things to remember.
Remember that we do not all have the same values, upbringings, or set of beliefs about health; whether that be mental, physical, or how we act during and post-pandemic.
It’s important to show respect to each other, and to recognize that each of us needs a level of respect as well.
If you ask an introvert who does not enjoy seeing people in person or interacting with others all that much what they have thought of the pandemic, you may get a very different answer than from someone who is quite social and enjoys moving around and changing their scenery.
As always, we remember the value of children and their own experiences which have been affected by the pandemic; what kind of changes that have been and are still being made to their daily lives and patterns; and their own tendencies to want to be around people or to leave their homes for activities.
I hope you, your family, and your loved ones work to recover from the changes we are continuing to experience, and I hope that you stay as healthy as you are able.
