There's not much more that I feel I need to say or that I can add in a novel way about what's unfolded over the past two months globally and within our country that hasn't already been said. Many of us have been glued to our screens (phones and televisions) with bated breath about what was happening in the world related to COVID-19. Many of us have gone through multiple stages of grief as we watched helplessly as our loved ones and friends fell ill with a virus our medical personnel couldn't beat. We've also desperately weighed in on, pleaded with, and accepted our fate of hopeless resignation as our local governments scrambled to disseminate changing information and limited resources.
We've experienced a collective depression and deep felt heart ache as we've watched the death toll tick higher and higher globally each day as COVID-19 rampaged through the children of mother earth. Many of us have been emotionally and physically tired whether we've been out of work or continued to attend a job as an essential worker. There are others that have taken on the role of teacher to our kids when the schools closed and those who continued to work from home and adapted a new routine. Our medical personnel and other essential workers are tired and running on shells of themselves as the last remnants of fuel to provide for us in our communities. Now, we are preparing to venture back to a state or 'normalcy' as many of our local governments are advocating for the re-opening of businesses and economic growth once again. But what is normal anymore?
As many other news outlets and informed articles have already hit at, we have collectively experiences a great trauma as human beings alive today. It will naturally take time to find a rhythm that resembles what use to be in the world. For many who have lost loved ones, finances, employment, hope....finding that rhythm might feel so inconceivable at this point in time. Take it slow and don't put pressure on yourself to feel or act in any particular way to how things use to be. Nothing at this point in time was how it use to be.
As a therapist that has worked with individuals who have experienced different forms of trauma, negative life events, grief, and other forms of loss I can't begin to tell each of you individually what you might feel over the next month. You will all feel different things based on how you were impacted and if there was a perception of impact at all. What I can impart is a suggestion of patience with your fellow human beings as we grapple with what's to come, respect for the lived experiences of others even if those experiences are different than yours. Acceptance of time for healing, recognition that some have not been greatly impacted, and that what was normal will need a period of rebirth.
Whatever it is that you feel in this moment and moving forward, you are not alone!
Devin Pinkston is a local mental health counselor and Gender Therapist in Grand Junction Colorado. Call to schedule a consultation today at 970-644-2392.
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