How to slowly heal from the pandemic trauma?

September 25, 2022 3:59 PM

I have been experiencing on and off trauma/anxiety from this pandemic and finding it difficult to stay cheerful at times. The pandemic happened all so fast so the experience is very jarring and exhausting as it’s been with us a long time - still difficult processing all of it.

What are some small things that you did or currently find helpful to heal the process of pandemic trauma? I am currently starting to see a therapist, but wondering if there are other small things that can help and have/is helping you heal?

posted by RearWindow to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

Best answer: I have found in-person events that are chill and low pressure, like music nights and art festivals outside, to be incredibly refreshing. Friends and family are important as are nice colleagues and neighbors but so is a sense of community among people with shared interests.
posted by smorgasbord at 5:35 PM on September 25, 2022 [13 favorites]

What helps me to stay cheerful is to consider that all of my ancestors faced similar or worse hardships than this, but unlike them I have the resources I need to push through to the other side. Things are going to be okay some day, and until then we hold on and keep each other safe. It's OK because it's what we were born to do.
posted by bleep at 6:10 PM on September 25, 2022 [11 favorites]

for an empathetic view, it was reassuring and stress-relieving watching Bo Burnham Inside. Hilarious. Touching.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:56 PM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Seconding low-key social time.

For me, one of the hardest things about the worst part of the pandemic was the grinding sameness of every day. Now I find going and doing something new is refreshing in a way it wasn’t before.

Experiencing live performance has been very good for me during this time as well.
posted by lunasol at 11:46 PM on September 25, 2022 [7 favorites]

The pandemic is a hyperobject that means a lot of different things and is leaving its scars in different ways. Could you be a bit clearer about which aspects are affecting you?

For example, i had a newborn in March 2020, which meant totally useless zoom calls with my midwife post partum and no local mama peers for support, friendship and playdates. And as an Australian abroad and part of a movement that was divided between evidence and hyperbole... generally though things have gone well, but there are some very specific experiences that still deeply frustrate, trigger or enrage me.

So I am guessing my recovery approaches are very different to yours. It sounds like the speed of the initial change and the uncertainty with which so many changes happened are part of what is affecting you so much.


Whatever you are experiencing is totally valid.
posted by pipstar at 12:39 AM on September 26, 2022 [4 favorites]

I work in a pandemic-intensive field and, yeah, I agree, it's been a lot to take in. Therapist, yes. I'm talking to my therapist about confronting misanthropy, maybe specifically how to make peace with feeling that my deepest values have been shown to be upside down to a great many other humans. While I'm working on that—and that is work I expect to take a long time and never be 100%, because I'm glad to have been shaken out of my naive assumptions at the very least—I'm taking opportunities to just feel good. Like, flat out feeling good without any preconditions. This is purely subjective, but for me that takes the form of a lot of outside time. Free, liberated, wild connection with dirt and air and rivers and lakes and grass and birds. I also seek escape from people. Not just distance, I mean escape. I've done a few solo, multi-day hikes on the most deserted trails I can get access to. There's a point when I haven't seen another human in a couple hours when I feel my entire body uncoil. It's access to a kind of giddyness that I didn't realize I lost touch with so thoroughly during the worst of the pandemic's politicization. I hope you have a thing that you love to do that you had to hold back from that you can grab with both hands now, too!
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:26 AM on September 26, 2022 [9 favorites]

I keep thinking about this question and not exactly knowing how to answer because it's still going.

But, like others have said, my primary form of solace has been serious outdoor time. I'd been a camper as a kid and young adult, I did not expect my husband to particularly take to it, but I rented camper vans a couple times and then got us some very comfortable car camping supplies and now we own a cargo van and are traveling for a year or two, emphasis on outdoor activities and exploration, so that escalated dramatically. In any case, getting OUT has been the thing: outside, out in new and interesting ways, getting a lot of novel sensory input in a place that's safest to do so, the planning and prepping for these adventures, those have been remarkable treatment for certain aspects of our mental health.

Also meds. That's a critical part of the whole equation too.

And like late afternoon dreaming hotel articulated so well, I think it is critical to find ways to grapple with feeling that my deepest values have been shown to be upside down to a great many other humans. I think you have to make a practice of first seeking out and making community - virtual if necessary - with people who DO share your values. Maybe later comes the harder work of finding sympathy at least, if not empathy, with some of the people who have snapped under the weight of this immense fear and anxiety and ended up in bad places, because some of them might still find their way back.

Yes, too, to seeking out (safe, healthy) ways to feel good and indulging in them on purpose. This goes beyond the soft components of "self-care" and means really making space in your schedule for hobbies, fun, intellectual satisfaction, connection with others/caretaking your important relationships. It also means looking for the opportunities for joy as they come, and taking time for gratitude where it's deserved.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:42 AM on September 26, 2022 [4 favorites]

Pandemic isolation spotlighted for me how important it is to be around other people -- even for an introvert like myself. We are all social creatures, to at least some degree, and we derive part of our sense of self from being seen by others. It has been very restorative for me to make a point of scheduling time with friends and family.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:43 AM on September 26, 2022 [1 favorite]