Coronavirus: Can isolation be good for mental health?

What I am seeing is people’s amazing capacity to harness humor, to rally and support each other, and to engage more openly as a result of isolation.

By SUSAN LEWIS
We also have time in isolation to sit, listen, play and talk. (photo credit: PXFUEL)
We also have time in isolation to sit, listen, play and talk.
(photo credit: PXFUEL)
In these early days of coming to terms with the impact of the COVID-19 virus, there is a common expectation that the impact on mental health will be devastating. I say this not based on any research but rather on conversations I had with people both casually and within my professional practice.
The question to ponder is what is the likely consequence for mental health of the radical lifestyle changes we are all experiencing? Prior to this pandemic, most people in first world countries lived a fast-paced life. Life for most of us had become very hectic. Professionals within the field of mental health share a caseload of patients/clients who present as stressed. Some of the main outcomes of this stress are strain in personal relationships, relationship breakdown and a wide range of personal psychological and physiological symptoms.
The general expectation seemed to be that this pandemic would totally overwhelm this challenged, strained, stressed, anxious, depressed and addicted first-world population. It is early days and few of us at this point have direct knowledge of or experience with anyone dying, but what I am observing in this “accidental research” based purely on conversations with small groups comprising ordinary families as well as families which present with the range of symptoms described above, is that people are coping positively, well beyond any negative expectations which have been assumed.
I need to preface my observations and note that I am not working in a setting that specializes in domestic violence or suicide, but rather within a broad-based general practice. Nevertheless, I have seen both ends of the spectrum, the “good enough” families and individuals, as well as those struggling with various degrees of serious symptoms. Both groups would appear to be coping well in the current environment.
The positive observations that I am commenting upon won’t necessarily apply in all situations. There will undoubtedly be some situations of increased conflict, but currently, within the parameters and limitations of my experience, even those people presenting with more serious pre-existing disorders appear to be coping well.
What I am seeing is an amazing capacity that people have to harness humor, to rally and support each other, and to engage more openly as a result of ‘isolation.’
THE CURRENT pandemic is a bit like a massive social experiment. What then is the outcome of isolation on mental health? One answer is that isolation effectively throws families and individuals back onto their own resources. As there is unfortunately no magic bullet as yet, each family and individual is responsible for protecting themselves. This statement is by no means meant to diminish the importance of the work of governments and our heroic medical and health practitioners on the front line.
In just examining the unusual phenomenon of isolation, it would seem that one outcome of accepting the need for isolation in itself is that it can be empowering. Rather than feeling powerless, helpless and consequently despondent, people can feel that where there is no instant fix, each of us can have control over the extent to which we keep ourselves safe and protect our families. We can religiously isolate, wash our hands, and wear gloves and masks. We can stay calm and care for our families, friends and neighbors. We can laugh and, for those who are fortunate, continue to work to ensure the future wellbeing of our communal economies.
A second outcome of isolation is that we are effectively forced to slow down. Even those working from home no longer need, for the most part, to spend hours commuting. When I think back, life had become so entirely hectic that it is as if the world has miraculously stopped and we have almost gotten off at the station. We all knew that, at least within the so-called First World, we were juggling too many balls, but what was the point of commenting on this because it isn’t an individual factor but a sociological factor. Once one mother sends her children to one after-school activity, before you know it, this has become the norm and then it’s three or four activities and this is on top of mother’s juggling work and family. Effectively what has happened is that “relating” and “smelling the roses” became clichés and concepts that left us feeling guilty.
Apart from the benefits of having a sense of being empowered, we also have time in isolation to sit, listen, play and talk. I suspect that where people feel empowered, creativity can replace helplessness. I notice that people are teaching their children skills which they are not likely to learn at school. Kids are cooking meals, engaging in woodwork, crafts, learning to use tools, teamwork, teaching themselves a range of skills online and generally learning to occupy themselves without the structure imposed. I see and hear about happy kids enjoying having time with their parents, I see couples pulling together rather than pulling apart. Families are not only eating together, but cooking together.
I heard of people not wanting their cleaners to enter the house and in the pre-Passover period when women are often very stressed by the preparations, I heard of their learned husbands for the first time helping their wives prepare the house, frequently emphasizing what is in fact essentially Passover ”cleaning” versus spring cleaning. This major task was suddenly a combined, joint, facilitative effort and no longer another opportunity to run oneself ragged.
Perhaps these changes can be explained by the proximity factor. When actually thrown together within a relatively small space, there is no work, gym, bar, shopping, etc., to provide an escape valve. Generally, when things are strained, people unconsciously pull away from each other only to come out fighting every so often. It is as if they retreat to the corners of the ring and regroup until they re-enter the battle.
Another factor of interest in understanding why people may be coping well is the fact that we are all fighting the same battle. The emphasis at the moment is not on individual pain and suffering, except of course for those families who have lost a loved one or have a loved one with serious symptoms. For the rest of us in isolation, the emphasis now is on community. We have a common enemy and what impacts my neighbour has the potential to impact me.
We have been forced to think outside of our narrow boundaries and see ourselves as a part of a larger whole. This is quite different to what generally happens as our current political systems demonstrate heightened polarization rather than a capacity for unity. This is particularly evident in the US and Israel.
WE ARE currently being forced to regroup and have been provided time to reevaluate our slogans, to think about personal and group responsibility, to commit to our shared values and lead our small family groups forward in this current challenge.
If we all take responsibility, then we can be more accepting of the difficulties faced by our leaders to make decisions minute by minute in a rapidly changing environment. Taking individual responsibility isn’t enough and we are all learning lessons on how our individual choices have the capacity to impact the lives of our neighbors or someone else’s grandparent.
More importantly, I also see that in this atmosphere where we are thrown together to protect each other there is a more ideal opportunity to tackle the stuck communication themes. Perhaps with fewer opportunities to escape and greater proximity, there is more time to pick up issues which were waylaid. When faced with a life-and-death situation, people can tune in to the fundamental human need to attach, to love and be loved, to give and to take. We are restricted to the essentials that matter with few distractions which are often centred outside the home. It’s not just work, it’s gym or shul or learning.
At an individual level we do what we can to keep ourselves and our nuclear and extended families safe, but we are also learning that what happens in Wuhan, in Italy, in South Korea, in Singapore, in Australia and in Czechoslovakia has great relevance to how we understand the coronavirus and consider what the best way is to approach the pandemic. This is a massive side benefit of the coronavirus .
Perhaps for the first time in our lives we have been forced to move away from the “selfie” movement and reflect on the broad community. We are learning how to cope with unknowns, how to adapt, to tune into skills we didn’t know we had. I keep hearing the statement that we are all in this together and this appears to have had a major impact on how people deal with their individual anxiety.
If these observations and personal and professional experience can be seen as “accidental research,” what can be learned going forward? Do we have to wait for all the formal studies or can we immediately recognize that slowing down, and centering in on what is most important, (reducing the pace of life, re-grouping and connecting with the thread that ties us all together) are what really matter. Can we see that it is possible when the external variables are reduced that we can think beyond the self and form real authentic attachments?
These are among the lessons to be learned and carried forward from the coronavirus.
The writer is an Australian-registered psychologist and a member of the Israel Association of Marital and Family Therapy and Israel Federation of Social Workers. She practices in Jerusalem and internationally. www.susanlewis.com.au