COVID-19: Our Brains, Our Bodies, Our Trauma. Part 4.
Part 4: Stop Scrolling
What day is it?
Seriously. Without looking at a calendar, or the lock screen on a phone, do you know, with 100% certainty, what day it is?
A few friends and I have been doing a weekly “vibe check” (staying connected!): a text-based exchange to check-in about how we’re feeling. That typically happens on Wednesdays, but Wednesdays now feel like Thursdays, which sometimes feel like Sundays so who even knows anymore.
In the pre-COVID world, schedules were set and adhered to with great care. I relied heavily (I mean really heavily) on my weekly Google calendar. Recently, though, time has become distorted. Minutes, hours, days, and entire weeks are either fleeting or everlasting; looking ahead feels impossible. A distorted sense of time is associated with a dissociative response to stress and trauma, especially prolonged stress or trauma that feels inescapable (so, yes, COVID-19). It is the ‘Freeze” component of the Fight/Flight/Freeze response. Dissociation is not an inherently bad thing, it is normal and can be an adaptive way to manage — until it’s not. In small amounts, it looks like avoidance, numbing, or tuning out. I mention that here because if your dysregulation looks like dissociation, you may not be feeling overwhelmed, anxious…
