It’s Blue Monday. I don’t know about you, but Lockdown 3.0 is feeling much harder than the first two. Yes, the weather is colder and the nights are longer, but this feeling of tiredness is replete with nervousness and anxiety that are bubbling away just under the surface. I was tired during the first lockdown, but this feels more than just the inability to stay awake past ten pm. It’s all encompassing exhaustion. And as a single mum with a child who slept for two hours at a time for the first six years of her life, I know exhaustion.
For those of you who join me in the weary, ever-present, mind numbing, body aching slump of Lockdown 3.0 there is a scientific explanation of why we’re feeling like this.
Our surge capacity is depleted.
What Is Surge Capacity?
According to Public Health england, in its working form, surge capacity refers to the ability of a team to respond to a sudden increase in demand; an A&E team dealing with a multiple casualty accident, a search and rescue team dealing with a natural disaster. A short sharp high intensity increase.
In human form Dr Ann Masten, a psychologist, coined Surge Capacity to be a series of adaptive systems; physical, mental, community, and family, that we can draw on to get us through a short term stressful situation. Stores of energy and focus, the love of a community or family, to get us through a finite disaster. A bank of resilience to the unexpected that we can turn to, as individuals, to help us.
Why Is It All Gone?
These banks or stores of surge capacity, or resilience, are finite resources for short term stressful situations. Under normal circumstances these depleted stores can recharge themselves once the stressful situation has concluded. Most of us have ways to recharge that we may not even think about; reading a book, watching a series on TV, exercise. But COVID has turned our short term stressful situation into a chronic indefinite uncertainty.
Since March 2020 there has been no time to recharge and recuperate our stores. Not only that, COVID has also taken away some of the resources we may have turned to in times of crisis. Our family and community. With social distancing and rules and laws all warning us (quite rightly) against seeing people we don’t live with and aren’t bubbled with, we’re devoid of a coping strategy before we can even draw on it. It’s shown us, as humans, how much we rely on others.
How To Cope With Depleted Surge Capacity.
The first thing to remember is this is not ordinary exhaustion. This is a once in a lifetime experience that no-one could have predicted. Try not to berate yourself for being unable to do things that once came easily, for being unable to concentrate for long periods, for feeling unmotivated and permanently tired. As Tara Haelle said so well in her article, it’s an “anxiety-tainted depression mixed with ennui that I can’t kick.”
Remember that you are not alone. The whole world is in this together, and drawing from that may help reduce the anxiety about not being able to cope.
We have to realign our goals and expectations, reduce the amount of pressure we put ourselves under. Slow down and reassess some of the experiences that are non-productive that perhaps you may have put off before. But don’t get angry with yourself if you’ve not used the lockdown to learn new skills; our brains cannot process effectively when they’re under stress.
Speak to someone about how you’re feeling. Though we may not have family and friends close by, we still have ways of communicating with them. We can call, or videochat, and writing letters can help you put in words how you’re feeling. Speak to your managers about how you’re coping at work. If they can rethink their expectations of you too, it may take away some of the pressure. Speak to a professional and work through coping strategies with those trained to help.
Sleep when you need to. Granted, this is not easy when you work or have children, but in times of acute stress, your body needs sleep and rest to recuperate. Take naps. Go to bed earlier. Set your alarm for later if you’re working from home. Listen to what your body is asking of you.
Take each day a step at a time and we will get there together.
