Signs & effects of hypervigilance in the COVID age

In almost every part of the world there is some region where the menace of COVID is full blown to the point where it never feels far away.  Even in comparatively safe quarters, perhaps a state or two away from an epicentre, we get the distinct impression that the second or third wave is only a matter of time away.  This can have either a very disconcerting affect, or lingers in the background, and either way there is the ever-present possibility that we become hypervigilant about the future, and in doing so the present moment is forever interrupted.

COVID is part of the ambient environment.  It is part of the climate within the psyche of humanity wherever we go.  And though we may joke about how woeful 2020 is in comparison to 2019, what we cannot escape is an inescapable reality. With every day that passes we come to the realisation that our world is not only changing, as in present tense, but that it has changed.  Those 2019 nostalgias are gone forever, and this can only leave us in the state of grief, unless it is that we insist there are possibilities and opportunities in our midst.  There enters faith.

Amid all the problems we face in this present day — the medical, or threat thereof, the social, and the insurgent financial — and all the effects that spinoff of these, there is a myriad of attack upon our peace.  Hope can become invisibly constrained, and we hardly recognise that hypervigilance leads to anxiety, which bleeds into depression, leaving us feeling relentlessly assailed.

The signs and effects of hypervigilance in this COVID age should seem obvious, certainly from the signs of the ever-present nature of the media overwhelm, but the signs and effects are not always immediately detected or discerned.

Signs can include:

§     reading up about conspiracy theories and, worse, propagating them 

§     giving into temptation to imbibe unreliable sources of information

§     becoming political about it all, and not seeing the enemy in conflict

§     reading and listening to too much media

§     getting involved in too many discussions about COVID

§     discussing it too much with children

The fact is we all need a little bit of peace from this relentless barrage that sends us quickly into overwhelm.  We are facing a marathon, and we will not go the distance or survive at all well if we are sprinting all the way.

The effects of taking too much on board are:

§     getting overly concerned about those things we cannot control – if we cannot control something, what is the use in becoming befuddled about it?

§     insisting others come to our side of arguments on any issue (notice the emphasis I’m placing on the word ‘insisting’) – even if our views are right, we can quickly put people off by how stubbornly passionate we are in demanding they adopt our view

§     others are noticing you’re a little erratic and you may feel you’re losing friends

§     when we enquire on our thinking, and find that we are overly negative the majority of the time – it’s so good to notice these inner trends

§     situations where the simple things in life can no longer be appreciated – if anything, we may be able to appreciate the simple things in life all the more now

Of course, the common denominator in all of this is a life that’s swinging more and more wildly out of balance, and we all have times when our lives need balance restored.

More now than ever we need balance to stay in balance.

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash