It’s almost as a lifetime of events have been packed into one year. This is something that has affected everyone. No life has been untouched by Covid. Some have lost loved ones, some have gotten really sick, some have lost jobs, some have experienced depression for the first time, and others experience an increase in their depression.

As humans, we like predictability. We like to know what’s coming next. We like to make plans for the future. This predictability and planning help us cope with life, but with Covid, that’s been taken away. It’s become difficult to make plans for the future because we are still in this waiting period. Waiting for Covid to be over, waiting for the vaccine, waiting to see friends and family again. Waiting. A year of waiting.

Sure, we’ve done some adjusting. We found out a lot of us can work from home. We found out school can be done from home (whether that’s enjoyable or not is a different story). We also found out we don’t need as much toilet paper as we thought we did in the beginning. We found out we can live this quarantine life but it doesn’t come without a price. A year of adjustments.

Fatigue is a big price we pay.

This feeling of I don’t want to do this anymore. Feeling like every day is the same day. Get up, go to work (aka your living room), then if you’re feeling up to it maybe do a little exercise, a binge that Netflix shows that you don’t really enjoy, but you ran out of things to watch, and then go to bed. The weekend comes and you’ve never felt like you’ve had so much time to kill and your life. So you start a home project, or you’ve gotten into biking, or hiking, or art, and yet still feel fatigued. This fatigue is a contributing factor to why the things we used to enjoy no longer bring us joy. This fatigue is why some of your coping skills no longer work and why you have to work extra hard to find new ones to just get you through the day. A year of coping.

The Confusion

Our media and even our government also contribute to this fatigue. Between, the conflicting views and not knowing who to trust, it makes it extremely hard to navigate this pandemic. You’re constantly teetering the line between staying informed and burnout. You want to make an informed decision on how to be safe but can find conflicting information everywhere you turn. Honestly, this is a form of gaslighting. It is exhausting being gas-lit by your own country. It makes trusting anyone very hard. It’s what is causing us to feel so divided. A year of distrust.

Zoom Fatigue

Zoom fatigue is a real thing. Video chatting is a major way we communicate these days. It’s how we stay connected to our co-workers, our family, and our friends. We spend all day going from one Zoom meeting to the next, and the last thing you want to do is get on another Zoom meeting to socialize. Between the headaches and the backaches, the last thing you want to do is add another Zoom meeting to your schedule. A year of Zoom fatigue.

Differences

This is also been a year of finding out that your friends and families don’t share the same views as you. Trying to navigate those relationships with a different perspective of what their values are is very difficult. Having to have difficult conversations about how you don’t feel comfortable hanging out with someone because of their decisions with how they’re handling the pandemic is exhausting. Every time you leave the house is a calculated decision on how you will face the pandemic. The distance you feel between your friends and family who share different views is not only physical but emotional too, and that’s a heavy thing to carry around. When you find out someone you love doesn’t share the same views as you on something very important, it’s disappointing and heartbreaking. Then deciding how to move forward in that relationship is a whole other beast on its own. It’s exhausting. A year of exhaustion.

Normalize

With all this being said, I want to normalize your exhaustion. I want to normalize your feelings of I just want this to be over. I want to also normalize your feelings of I don’t mind working from home or I can’t wait to go back to the office. Your exhaustion, fear, anxiety, depression, and worries are valid.

If there is one thing that you take away from this blog post, it should be that you are not supposed to know how to navigate this pandemic perfectly. You have never done this before. You are doing the best you can with what you know and what you have. Be gentle with yourself, give yourself space when you feel low, and love yourself through it. Reach out for help if you need it. You are not meant to be in your struggle alone.

Psychology Today and Therapy Den are excellent websites to help you find a therapist.

National Suicide Hotline is 800-273-8255.

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