Love in the time of Corona

As we approach the seventh week of lockdown, the nation’s thoughts are starting to turn towards what’s going to happen on the other side, when all this is ‘over’. Some are excited for a return to normal, but there is a growing realisation that it will be virtually impossible to circle back to what has been. Instead, the world will emerge from this crisis as a different version of itself and it will be up to humanity to determine whether this adaptation is to be an improvement on before, or not. We will have to decide, at both an individual and societal level, whether we embrace this opportunity as a gift, or ignore it.   Take the health and social care sector, for example. Many services up and down the country, including the mental health service I work in, have had to figure out new ways of providing support and interventions. A small proportion of our service activities have had to stop entirely, but almost everything has continued in some form, with a fair few adaptations. ...

I have wondered many times why I continue running, often straight after the run itself in a fleeting, fatigue-induced bad mood. After all, I’ve never thought that endurance is one of my strengths. As a child I watched peers compete in long distance running while I stuck to short sprints and field events. In my teens I composed revision timetables based on brief periods of work and regular breaks, knowing that interest and motivation would wane quickly otherwise. But something made me start running and I carried on irregularly over the years, even after my initial interest faded.   Last week though, toiling along behind everyone else, I began to think about it more seriously. Why was I wasting my outside exercise allowance feeling exhausted and unhappy, when I could be enjoying the fresh air and summer weather? Why was I finding the run so hard? I thought back to a adolescent client, a keen runner, whom I had recently asked for advice on improving my endurance. “I dunno”, he’d...

I am sitting on the carpet, my spine curved into a C shape as my shoulder blades rest uncomfortably on the wall behind. My legs are bent up in front of my chest and a laptop is balanced precariously on my knees, so that the screen is level with my head. The child pictured on the monitor tilts suddenly as a gust of wind from the open window threatens to upend him. I hastily reach to settle the computer and draw my attention back to the child’s play, his unconcerned laughter masking any awareness he might have had that I was about to disappear. Like many other people all over the world, I am currently working from home. As a result, my home life and working world have become disconcertingly intertwined and the once clear boundaries between them have become blurred and opaque. The place where I live, love and unwind is now also the place where I treat, advocate, supervise and consult. The unconventional seating position above, therefore, was an inelegant attempt to replicate the neut...

Since Covid 19 has taken hold in the UK and quarantine has become the new normal, we’ve all probably said and heard something along the lines of “it’s a difficult situation, but we’re all in it together and other people have it worse”.   Except, we’re not all in it together, or at least, our situations aren’t all exactly the same. A few weeks ago I wrote about how communal resilience can come from facing a common enemy and while that might be true, it’s also quite complex. We may all be in the same boat, but we don't have equally efficient sails and we won’t all be facing the same seas. It is not a level playing field, as Emily Maitlis eloquently explained on BBC Newsnight last week.   Thinking that others have it worse is, in many ways, helpful. It offers perspective, an opportunity to look at one’s stressors as part of a bigger picture and can foster empathy and consideration of others. However, there are dangers to this line of thinking too. If we place too much e...

It probably won’t come as a surprise that video gaming has gained popularity during the Covid 19 isolation period, with one report estimating that US video game usage alone increased by 75% during the first week of quarantine.   It’s a pattern I’ve seen in both my work and personal life too. Numerous parents have reported struggling to convince their children to get off their screens when there is little else for them to do and few permissible reasons for them to go outside. In my social groups, friends have decided that now is the time to finally get that console they’ve been eyeing up and people who’ve previously shown no interest in video games have suddenly become pros. Due to the industry’s controversial history, many will be horrified to see video games on the rise, but what if they could actually become key players in our wellbeing during times of crisis? From concerns about health to worries about societal and environmental impacts, the video game industry has som...

Rarely has health and wellbeing been such a universally hot topic. Before Covid 19 appeared, mental health was enjoying increased acknowledgement and recognition, as wellbeing advocates campaigned to achieve parity of esteem: equal valuing of mental and physical health. Now physical health has (understandably and necessarily) stormed back into the spotlight, there are concerns that emotional and psychological wellbeing will have even more difficulty stepping out of the shadows of it’s richer, better understood and more widely acknowledged cousin. This is despite the fact that universal crises like Covid 19 have an undeniable effect on how we feel. Paul Daley’s piece in the Guardian recently suggested there will be a wave of severe mental health disorders as a consequence of Covid 19 and the new way of living it has bestowed on us. As anxiety increases, isolation takes its toll, unemployment rises and our normal routines are thwarted, Paul argues there will be a significant es...