Why Are We All Exhausted During This Pandemic?

There is so much going on in the world right now as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, with a lot of it affecting our day to day lives closer to home. We’re all feeling worried about our friends, our families, and ourselves. We feel emotionally stranded and stretched to our limits, wrestling with things like job insecurity and full-time childcare on top of a looming recession. It doesn’t help that there is, unfortunately, no definitive end to this pandemic, so we are all feeling anxious and stressed as our emotional resources take a beating.

While the world news has been focused on reporting case numbers and infection rates of COVID-19 and its effects on physical health, its impact on people’s mental health hasn’t had the same coverage.

It’s impossible to diminish how much the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world, with enormous shifts in how society is functioning. This has had a seismic effect on our behaviors, with many feeling emotionally tired in ways that they may not understand or recognize as they simply have not experienced it before.

What Are the Psychological Effects of This Pandemic?

Our daily lives bear almost no resemblance to normal, with many forced to work from home or out of work entirely, while others are going to work at unrecognizable workplaces. While the psychological effects have been studied by many over the last few months, research is still ongoing and ever changing as we learn more every day about how this psychologically impacts us. That being said, the general consensus so far from the studies that have already been completed have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered mental health issues for many people, ranging from anxiety, depression, as well as some panic disorders.

Some people have been handling the current situation of social distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns well enough, but continually dealing with these ongoing dilemmas each and every day is certainly taking it’s emotional toll. There is a growing number of people experiencing emotional burnout, with feelings of dread, loss, uncertainty, anger, and frustration. Faced with such a constant onslaught of health concerns, unique problems, and other moral quandaries, we’re all feeling emotionally exhausted and drained, with reduced mental energy and decision fatigue.

What Can You Do to Reduce Feelings of Exhaustion?

Without an end in sight to this pandemic, understanding how we should handle this type of emotional exhaustion is imperative. This can be done by recognizing which situations and circumstances deplete you the most, and then restricting your exposure to them. Even though some may be beyond your ability to control, there are still ways in which you can protect yourself. For example, you can start by avoiding any unnecessary negativity and limiting how much news you watch to ultimately reduce external pressure.

Learning how to navigate this pandemic is important for your mental health. While it seems like this is going to last forever because of the unpredictability of this virus and the ever-changing safety precautions around it, this will eventually come to an end. It’s just a matter of when and managing as best as we can for the time being.