Mental health crisis looms
By Adam Borowski
The governments keep warning us against the second wave of the coronavirus. Yet, there is another threat on the horizon for billions of people around the world: a post-lockdown mental health crisis tsunami. The pandemic is ongoing and the extent of the crisis is unclear. For now, the waters have receded and everything seems calm.
Chaotically calm, that is.
At first, a major portion of the global population probably thought staying at home was an adventure to tell the grandchildren. A few weeks later, it turned out dancing to K-pop and uploading catwalk challenge videos to TikTok was no longer fun.
People don't know when to wear masks, some simply can't wear them. Millions of people can't talk to their psychotherapists and psychiatrists face-to-face.
Teachers of English asking their students about irregular verbs suddenly realize half of the class isn't online. Parents have been forced to read up on homeschooling.
In an era when you can be fired by e-mail, how many employees suffer from panic attacks every morning? With intermittent, often localized, lockdowns now a part of our lives, the adventure has turned into a nightmare.
Even the introverts among us, who usually like isolation, are asking the question: have I crossed over to some dystopian alternate reality where the cancel culture can subject anyone to a global humiliation ritual?
I sometimes wonder that myself. Don't get me wrong, the pre-pandemic world was fundamentally flawed. Still, compared to what is going now, it was a beacon of sanity. The “old normal'' isn't coming back, so writing in the past tense is appropriate here. To use a historical analogy, there is no Berlin Wall to climb over with a better world waiting on the other side.
This pandemic isn't the “great equalizer'' as some seem to believe. If anything, the virus has exposed inherent inequalities even further. We are constantly told all lives matter ― it's a lie to make us feel better about the state of the world. Millions of people across the planet, who often suffer in silence, are expendable.
The pandemic has exposed the fragility and superficiality of our materialist-centered lives. Take, as the perfect example, Facebook adding the care emoji to its platform to create an illusion of empathy.
In light of all this psychopathic bedlam, it is likely many people have turned to God in prayer. The belief in God gives people hope that there is another world out there. Call it heaven if you like. Even if you think there is no God, don't you find it fascinating you were born in South Korea ― and not in the Amazon rainforest? There seems to be a sentient, organized force behind the universal order.
Scientists keep telling us we are on our way to becoming a truly planetary civilization. But for now, we have traded freedom for apparent security. The developed nations can no longer claim the moral high ground. And when the mental health crisis tsunami hits the globe, expect more draconian measures to keep us in line.
In the new normal, popular South Korean “coffin therapy'' looks increasingly appealing.
Adam Borowski (adam.borowski1985@gmail.com) is a technical Polish-English translator and an international relations aficionado. He is the author of a novel titled: ''Planetary Entrapment Syndrome.''