Weare living in a memorable time indeed.
Thisarticle is an exploration of one question: given the current situation, didyou reach out for more toilet paper or more connection?
Im sure youve had a thought or two about the toilet papersituation at this point. Its a global event. Ive come to see it assymptomatic of what Freud called a cornerstone that civilization requires toexist, i.e., the renunciation of instinct.
Toput it simply: Id. Primitive, instinctive, unsophisticated Id.
Freudsoriginal insight suggests that the sublimation of primitive aggressivetendencies is a pre-requisite for civilization. It is impossible to overlookthe extent to which civilization is built up upon a renunciation of instincthe noted. The repression of aggressive instincts is perhaps one of the mostimportant functions our ego has. An injured, or maladaptive ego (aswe say in clinical jargon), doesnt sublimate aggression well. Redirectedaggression or sublimated anything ideally turns into creativity and curiosity,by the wayboth a healthy thing.
Ascared human is not a creative, curious human.It doesnt get simpler. Most of us are familiar with the notion of the reptilianbrain, and currently, you can feel it right here in your gut PANIC. Themessage comes automatically from the survival part of the brain through ourbodily sensations, feelings, emotions and thoughts.
Itscreams: Hoard, protect, hide, cover. Mine!
Whatis furthermore unique during this time is that the message of uncertainty isofficial. The Covid-19s response team from the Imperial College in London,which is about as formal and authoritative as one can get, notes:
We, therefore, conclude that epidemic suppression is the onlyviable strategy at the current time. Thesocial and economic effects of themeasures which are needed to achieve this policy goal will beprofound However, we emphasize that it is not at all certain (emphasismine) that suppression will succeed long term; no public health interventionwith suchdisruptive effects on society has been previously attempted forsuch a long duration of time. Howpopulations and societies will respond remainsunclear(emphasis mine).
Thedefining characteristic of a traumatic event is perceivedhelplessness. Covid-19s imposition on the changes related to our day-to-day(look at Zoom stock) are less significant than the uncertaintyrelated to its outcome in the long term.
Thisuncertainty is evident in the questions that are elicited How long will itlast? When will things go back to normal? Can I (fill in the blank) whilethe epidemic is going on? Short of what authorities are describing aspreemptive personal hygiene measures in the social sphere, the truth is that theuncertain is greater than that which is certain now.
Thehuman brain particularly the amygdala does not like unknowns. But thatsbeside the point here. Let us get back to the toilet paper.
Toiletpaper. Toilet paper is panic, its primitive, its Id. What did we do for allthose years before we had any? I wonder! Its a well-known principle thatcharacter reveals itself under pressure. This principle has certainly applieditself in my own life; however, it is also true that many people may not haveexperienced the level of demand, uncertainty, and dread that Covid-19 elicits.The virus, therefore, has become an induced initiatory experience for most ofthe population.
Initiationinto what you ask. Stillness.
Onemust admit, however, that initiation into stillness implies a privileged pointof view. Our current social reality is that most of us are about to havematters made worse by this situation. Unfortunately, wrapping ourselves intoilet paper wont help.
Medical providers and emergency responders (all of whom willmost likely become ill) are running out of supplies and require donations towork.
Additionally,many are at risk of entering into a state of economic duress, which would becompounded by becoming ill: Oh, the medical bills if you end up needing thatrespirator!
Forthose who find themselves in the throes of economic duress compounded byillness or the fear of becoming ill, one word applies: Endure.
Itwill not help to fight the injustices of the system, or to try to make sense ofwhy airlines get bailouts while we cant pay our rent. We must pause, take aknee, and learn to calm our nervous systems down. When this is over, the resiliencewe have developed will allow us to flourish, and to take a stand for authenticindependence in our lives.
Thewisdom of political resistance applies here: Dont let the system get youdown. Trust me; Im an immigrant, and I know a thing or twoabout systemic pressures in this country.
Covid-19has not diverted the world from its path of economic inequality. On thecontrary, it has inflamed it. The clinical consequences are only one side ofthe problem. Im not proposing complacency about present inequalities far fromit. Rather, this is a call to see the situation as it immediately demands. Letus fight in one impossible battle at a time.
Letus attend further to the enemy at hand: fear itself.
Intrinsicto this situation and regardless of our economic status is the fear it produces.The brain here enters into a state of acute hyper-arousal triggering our mostbasic survival complex. This state supersedes our capacity for rationalexecutive functioning, e.g., understanding the contemplation being offered here.
Naturesdesign is quite sophisticated, after all, and when shit hits the fan weeither fight, run, or play dead. Crises unmask us, expose us and make us vulnerable.Such crises trigger every psychological defense available to us. And when thosefail? Dread sets in. You know the dark stuff.
Thebottom line is this: panic-buying, or pandemic-consumerism, is asymptomatic reflection of a nervous system gone astray. It isirrational behavior a mind confused and intensely reactive to itsprojections, primitive regression, and catastrophic thinking.
This survival strategy has obvious limits and misses the fact that the same environment that gave us the primitive drive, also gave us the pre-frontal lobe. However, we must decide to access it. Victor Frankl (someone the whole world should get acquainted with right about now if they havent yet) famously noted that:
Everything can be taken () but one thing: the last of thehuman freedomsto choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances, tochoose ones own way.
Frankls was a human insight birthed within a concentration camp. Something similar was suggested in WWII as a morale campaign during the bombing in London hence the sign. Who would have thought that the British stiff-upper-lip could be used as a paragon of sanity for the time?
Butaccessing the pre-frontal cortex is not just a choice (it is that too). It is asystemic, whole-body, physiological event. It is a central nervous system state.And accessing this state, for almost all of us, requires training the mind-body.
Yousee, stillness and distraction dont go together. And for the most part, we areall very distracted. We have become accustomed to a way of life in which thevirtual domain outweighs our direct sensory experience of the ourselves and theworld. Social media and the world of virtual social interactions have made itso that the desired image of ourselves outweighs reality. Covid-19 is a realitytesting principle the world was not expecting.
Becausewe are habituated to the blinding pace of our current world slowing down willfeel initially like a shock. Ive seen this repeatedly in meditation retreats orin wilderness solos, where students sit by themselves in Nature for severaldays at time. These practices arethousands of years old, and have been understood for millennia to havetremendous psychological and spiritual significance.
Ihave certainly experienced this myself.For me, it usually takes about three days of sitting for the staticwhite noise of the city to go away. There is a ringing in the ears that all ofa sudden lets up, allowing me to yield and relax; It is something hard toexplain; however, it happens to most of us, and nowadays, its measurable in alab.
However,lab measurements of brain wave activities during meditation practice are notthe point. Reactionary and aggressive protest around stillness is the point. Italmost sounds too benign to be true: defense-against-silence asthe core issue. But I propose that it is.
BlaisePascal noted famously that Allof humanitys problems stem from one persons inability to sit quietly in aroom alone.
Idont know about all, but I certainly know about most. In addition,the incapacity for stillness adds to all the other problems most of thetime, because an anxious mind projects fear everywhere and regresses intoneurotic self-preservation, as we discussed before.
Allof this ends up compromising the immune system. How do I know this? Becausestress kills. And if it doesnt kill you, it will certainly injure you. Morespecifically, your response to your fear will effect your immune system.
Fearis but a primitive, startle-based survival impulse that, at its best, serves asan orienting function. You want to be able to alert to the danger and be ableto respond to it as the situation demands. But anticipating the punch, blockingit before it comes, countering before the opening is there all miss thewisdom of timing things. Anticipatory anxiety is a fear-based reaction that iscurrently making the crises worse. The epidemiology of Covid-19 is irrelevantinsofar as the incapacity to sit still with uncertainty goes. More importantly,it misses the insight that this is controllable, for each individualthrough the practice of stillness.
EmilyLandon, the chief infectious disease epidemiologist at the University ofChicago Medical School, touched upon this when she noted that the healthy andoptimistic among us will doom the vulnerable. She went on to say, that wewould be right to feel that the strategy of saving the world by doing nothingwas anti-climactic.
However, doing nothing ishardly as easy as it sounds.
It remains true that beforethis virus, we measured the value of life solely by doing more and more. Bemore efficient, more productive, more successful. At what cost? At the cost ofall our relationships, the eco-system included. Greed and ambition have nolimits, are always rewarded, and bailed out when they fail.
It will take courage not tobe defined by the pathological lack of empathy that drives so much of thissystem as it stands.
We text rather than call,post rather than engage, and push the like button because its just so damneasy. All of which contradicts the existential reality that the deepest communicationis mostly non-verbal! Were not built to look all day at the little screen;were made to look at each other. Babies and mothers know this for certain; nevertheless,it is true for all of us. We were all infants once, and we will never outgrowthat mirroring. Thank goodness!
As a mental health professional,I am stunned at the lack of public initiatives that address the primacy ofmental health in a moment like this. We all need the medical system to work. JayashriKulkarni, a psychiatry professor at Monash University in Melbourne, notedrecently: There is a prevailing belief that in any crisis you deal with thephysical issues first, then the mental health issues much later. I challengethis view because we need the public to be robust mentally to deal withthe challenges ahead (my emphasis).
A psychology of endurancerequires us to trainourmindsto desire what thesituation demands, as Seneca noted about 2000 years ago. The current crisesrequires balance and patience from us. It requires not to get ahead ofourselves, and not to amplify fear and dread.
Sittingstill with uncertainty is as simple as it sounds but not as easy you think. Allyou have to do is sit down, turn everything off that habitually distracts you,and breathe. Close your eyes if you want it doesnt matter. Just. Sit. Still.I challenge you to do it! Greater good will come from building this resiliencethan anything else you can do right now. As a good friend of mine and inspiring artist wrote recently:
We are not in a hurry
We need not run
We are the ants busy building ourmound
We are the trees dried and chappedstanding firm
We are here for what comes
We are the grass that laid our seedlong ago
We are ready for this moment
We are always ready
We know what to do
We have always known what to do
We need not run
-RobertBellows
References:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/20/emily-landon-coronavirus/
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/coronavirus-tips-for-protecting-your-mental-health-during-quarantine.html
Seneca
Victor Frankl., Mans Search forMeaning
See the rest here:
Covid-19 and psycho-immunology of panic - Thrive Global