2020 has been one of the most challenging years since the end of the Second World War in September 1945.
Why?
Succinctly stated, the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, arrived on the global stage during the last days of 2019. It was first discovered in Wuhan, China, and has swept its way across the world, resulting in over 41.5 million infections and 1.137 million fatalities to date.
The challenge with this virus is twofold:
- It is a new virus; hence, the name, the novel coronavirus. The world’s population has no immunity to this virus.
- It is extremely contagious and spreads primarily via person-to-person transmission, causing an illness which is fundamentally respiratory in nature known as COVID-19.
Consequently, one of the only ways to control and prevent its spread is implementing strict social-distancing and social isolation measures.
The first eight months of 2020 have seen varying numbers of global governments implementing hard lockdown measures as the virus spread through each country, respectively. All non-essential businesses, schools, and universities were closed, and residents were forced to spend most of their time indoors, at home, only being allowed out to buy food or to seek medical care.
Companies who could rapidly pivot their business operations online did so, allowing employees to work from home. This fact ensured that the business could keep operating throughout the lockdown, keeping people employed. However, many companies, such as those in the hospitality industry that could not be declared essential businesses, had to close for between 8 and 12 weeks, furloughing or laying off employees.
The mental health consequences of social distancing
Suffice to say, many families have lost their primary source of income, increasing stress and anxiety levels.
Actually, almost everything directly and indirectly related to the COVID-19 global pandemic was and continues to be extremely stressful, especially the need to social distance from other people.
The cdc.gov website describes how pandemics are very stressful. COVID-19 is a new disease that medical professionals and research scientists do not know much about. Much more is known about the virus, including the different genomes, how it mutates and spreads among the global population, than what was known in early 2020. But there is still a lot to be learned. These unknowns can be overwhelming and result in heightened levels of fear and anxiety. Secondly, humans are inherently social. Consequently, the need to social distance from other people for long periods can make people feel isolated and lonely, especially for those who live alone.
Note: While digital communications, especially social media, have mostly taken the place of face-to-face interactions, it is a poor second to real-time live interactions. It plays a fundamental role in facilitating communication between family and friends living in different households. However, it has not met, and will never, meet the need for physical interaction between people.
Responding to COVID-19 and the challenges it brings
As described above, it is reasonable to assume that the global population’s individual and combined stress levels are much higher than they would typically be. And while there are healthy ways to get stress levels under control, it’s often easier to resort to unhealthy practices like smoking too many cigarettes indoors, drinking too much coffee, forsaking daily routines, and eating too much sugar or too many fatty foods.
The commonition here is that, while these coping mechanisms are unhealthy and will have adverse side effects on the individual’s mental and psychical health, in the long- and short-term, they are even more devastating for families where there are children in the home.
For instance, smoking indoors might be a stress reliever for the adults who smoke; however, secondhand smoke contains more than 7 000 chemicals, of which hundreds are toxic, and 70 are known carcinogens. Statistics calculated from 1964 and onwards show that about 2.5 million US non-smoker adults have died from breathing in secondhand smoke.
It causes many health problems in children, including asthma, respiratory infections, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), and ear infections.
The ideal scenario would be to stop smoking altogether or to smoke outside. Smoking outside is not always possible when living in an apartment without a garden. And it is challenging to stop smoking, especially during a global pandemic that continues to rampage its way through global communities.
The good news is that there are safer alternatives used both as an substitute to smoking or as a means to cut down on the number of cigarettes smoked every 24 hours or stop smoking altogether.
Final thoughts
The SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay for the foreseeable future, or until an effective vaccine has been developed. As a result, it’s essential to implement healthy coping mechanisms to process the stress and anxiety that seems to be part of the pandemic. Practising healthy stress-reducing behaviours will go a long way towards improving you and your family’s quality of life.
