Some Pandemic Measures to Stop COVID-19 Deaths Increase Mental Illness and Deaths of Despair

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My thoughts are somewhat scattered writing this. I have tried multiple times to write about the mental health crisis for myself and others, but I struggle to make it coherent since I am often overwhelmed when beginning. Initially published on my Medium page 1/15/21.

I feel like this pandemic has hurt so many people mentally — more than we will know for years. We put the value on physical life — as in not dying from the coronavirus or other diseases — but some in the government and media and some regular Joes care less about those who are at increased risk of a “death of despair.” We don’t matter because we are not obvious to the world. Our deaths are recorded as something other than suicide. We are recorded as the man run over by a train or the “selfish” man who dared defend himself. We are another gun violence statistic quoted to deny us guns needed for our self-protection.

I understand that COVID-19 is a deadly disease for many. I don’t want my parents to get it. I don’t want people to live in fear of getting it. But it has spread because no human can stop nature. We can only take a few measures to mitigate the damage. Yes, masks and social distancing help. And living a healthier life would help too. But the pandemic has been used for the reason to deny people work and critical social interaction.

Talking with My Therapist about the Mental Health Impacts

I discuss many of my feelings with my therapist as I go through this. She has shared that the normal burnout people experience in late winter happened in October. Her office waitlist has increased exponentially. My son who was put on the top of that waitlist, waited three months to be seen. Current patients have also doubled their normal visits, including me who quadrupled my visits over the summer. She expresses how mental health professionals must deal with the anxiety of both clients wearing the mask and not wearing the mask, of clients’ fears when others wear or not wear a mask, those who lose loved ones to COVID-19, and those who lose loved ones to deaths of despair. They counsel those who have lost their jobs, lost social connection due to shutdowns and social distancing, and an overall sense of powerlessness. Truly, mental health professionals are left to deal with all the negative consequences.

The Mentally Ill Need Help Too

My opinion and so many other opinions on our personal mental health have been poo-pooed because we don’t fit the current narrative. The 11-year-old boy who died by suicide while attending virtual school doesn’t fit the agenda that children are adjusting to all-day online school. We are only worth listening to if it fits the majority opinion’s agenda. I am tired of being on the agenda when it is only about denying me access to firearms or increasing the federal budget. Our needs and lives matter as much as anyone else’s needs and lives. Yes, we disagree on the different approaches. Sometimes it feels like we have to fight harder to receive the help we need.

And what is the help we need IMO? Access to firearms to protect ourselves. Access to “nonessential” jobs. Access to therapy that isn’t so overrun due to the media and government (both parties) stoking our fear of physical death. Access to robust healthcare, but our healthcare has been crippled through government interference in the healthcare industry. Access to the money that we earn instead of withholding it in payroll taxes. If we want the money back, we have to wait until tax return time or navigate the impossible network of applying for disability. Access to housing, which property taxes threaten to take away. Physical access to friends and family (guess what? hugs increase happiness and immunity).

A Doctor, the Media, and Politicians Downplay Mental Illness

In the current environment, mentally ill people are treated like we don’t exist if we don’t fit a person’s narrative. It feels the only people being acknowledged as having a mental illness are those who fear themselves or loved ones dying of COVID-19. One local pediatrician posts regularly (and friends and family repost) that our anxiety is only temporary whereas those who experience COVID-19, die from it, or have a loved one die of it experience greater mental and physical health consequences. Are others who relapse into addiction, self-harm, or hurt others due to loneliness, joblessness, and homelessness only experiencing “temporary” anxiety? Are suicide and drug overdose deaths “temporary” anxiety?

Having that “temporary” anxiety mixed with bipolar 2 and PTSD, I know that my scars from suicide attempts are only “temporary.” And it would have only been “temporary” if I died (except my husband stopped me).

The media dishonestly covers the lockdown’s effect on mental illness because they downplay its effects. A one-sided article appeared that the Utah Suicide Prevention Commission claimed that those wearing a mask felt better mentally because they feel protected, yet failed to mention those who experience anxiety due to masks. They also stated that there was not an increase in suicides in Utah when we don’t know if there is a suicide increase until the CDC publishes the information in 2022. Personally, I lost trust in this commission because they won’t delve into the multi-faceted effect of the “stop the spread” campaign’s effect on the mentally ill.

If I have reservations about the Coalition’s opinion, it is because I read accident reports that I know are suicides or are most likely suicides. I also know that statistics in other countries show a different story. In Japan, suicide has increased by 83% for women and 22% for men in October 2020. Sixty-six more people have died from suicide than COVID-19 in Japan as of October. Both COVID-19 and mental illness are deadly. Neither should be downplayed.

Accusing Others of Murder Denies Physical and Mental Reality

On Veteran’s Day, the Deseret News ran a story on a WW2 vet who passed away from COVID-19 and old age. The story delves deeply into how the family claims people are so selfish for not obeying the pandemic rules. It is only the fault of “selfish” people that they couldn’t gather at his death bed and that he died. There was no mention that it is actually the nursing home and hospital policies restricting access to dying loved ones. And that this is all in place because of the VIRUS. It is no one’s fault. The family will understandably feel rage, but it isn’t appropriate for the news to publish that without any counterbalance in the article or another article. Instead, the stories of those who are suffering from psychological distress or dying deaths of despair are lost in the police/criminal section.

When a relative broke down emotionally via telephone last summer, she accused me and “Utahans” of murdering my parents. I told her no. It is COVID-19 or nature that kills. It is not me or other Utahans. I soothed her fears, but I didn’t express my pain to her. At that moment, she couldn’t handle it. Later I approached her about my pain. She thought it hadn’t affected me because I didn’t show the personal pain or loneliness. Conversely, she felt suicidal due to others mocking her for wearing a mask and concern for her health and our older relatives’ health. We both worried about losing our older relatives. Yet the pandemic measures also stopped this older couple’s home health care. In Spring 2020, one almost fell into a diabetic coma and another had a stroke. Thankfully, another relative lives near the older couple so he could check on them.

Heavy-handed Lockdown Measures Increase Potential for Riots

There are additional consequences to the lockdown. I believe the protests have more easily turned into riots because of the heavy-handed measures. George Floyd had lost his job due to the government shutdown when he was being arrested for paying with fake money. If he hadn’t lost his job (and a bad cop kneeling on him), would he be alive today? Some minorities lost their “nonessential” jobs. When the racial tension built, the jobless minorities joined in protests that sometimes turned into deadly riots.

Politicians make more laws to “slow the spread” that the police have to enforce. When we already have increased tension with police, why are we increasing the need for police? And why are these measures mostly for the people and not the politicians? Overall, this is bad for mental health.

My Personal Struggles

I don’t often share how often and how difficult my struggles have been through the pandemic. I have tried to kill myself many times from March 27 to January 14. Each time, my self-harm has escalated. I am lucky because I have a counselor, medication, a home, a husband with a job. Yet I still have been on the physical brink of death despite increased help. The times of self-harm have been affected by pandemic measures such as the closure of parks, a teacher bullying me about an obsessive level of cleanliness for several weeks, people on Facebook bullying me for stating others have a different opinion on masks, lack of social interaction, and the cost for increased mental illness care for myself and family. Other factors come into play, but my suicidality has been greater than the eight years previously.

We need to find a better balance to increase everyone’s mental health, instead of a small minority’s mental health, while taking reasonable measures to “slow the spread.”

Three Teambuilding Ideas for Remote Work

My office via Author

Many work teams are experiencing additional strain with the switch to remote work. Some have found ways to still connect during social distancing. Observing my spouse working from home, I have noted some of their strategies and others my spouse would like to implement at his job. Here are some of those ideas:

1. Start the day with a brief “How are you?” meeting

In the normal office environment, team members connect more naturally through greetings and asking how others are while in passing. The social niceties that bond the team together are harder to achieve in the remote workplace. For this reason, a brief “How are you?” meeting online will encourage the bonding ritual of greetings. Consequently, this time will improve team members’ mental health so they perform tasks better. 

To add variety to these meetings, team members can play different icebreaker activities such as Never Have I Ever. Teammates will discover new things about each other that they wouldn’t normally share at work. 

Other game ideas can be found here (some may need to be adjusted for remote work). Let’s Roam also has icebreaker games designed for remote workplaces.

2. Socially-distanced lunch

Set up a socially-distanced lunch at a park, someone’s yard, or another outdoor venue. The company can pay for the lunch or team members can bring their own lunch. Each person can sit or stand six feet apart to observe social distancing recommendations.

I highly recommend it because I have observed my husband’s team morale improve for the rest of the workday.

3. Play online games together

Prior to the pandemic, team members sometimes played games together during breaks. For now, teams can take those games temporarily online. Some good game websites include Jackbox and Roblox. Roblox is free and has many game options. For Jackbox, only one person needs to buy it for the whole group to use it. There are many other games where teams can play online that will fit any team personality.

So, try some of these ideas and see what works for your team. These can be adjusted as needed. Also, share what ideas work for your team in the comment section. Or gather ideas from the comment section.

Happy team building!

What ideas has your team used? What ideas do you think would work?

 

Finding Treasures in my Preteen Journal

Via Public Domain Pictures

While dictating and typing my journal into a Word document, I am discovering interesting themes in my preteen life. I see linguistic features of a preteen, emotional ups and downs, and how my family showed love toward me.

Dictation Oddities

Putting together poems for a potential anthology, I opened my journals to read the backstory. In the process, I chose to type my journals since I had to read them anyway. Because I can't keep my journal open and type at the same time, my husband suggested the dictation feature in Word. I tried it out and it mostly works.

I discovered some quirks dictating numbers and punctuation marks. While recording the date, the software will type numbers randomly in a number/word combination. Thus, I type the date. I don't see any pattern as to why it chooses the symbol or word. Number homophones are challenging for the computer too. For example, "ate" becomes "8" when it isn't next to a food word.

For punctuation, the dictation won't change parenthesis or quotation marks into punctuation, but it recognizes words like comma, period, and exclamation point. Sometimes period is recorded as the word and not the mark. MS Word will sometimes leave a space before a period too.

Names are a nightmare to record if they are not common or not the common spelling. I have two friends' names that have unique spellings. Those have to be changed by hand. One name records in two or three variations, Millera, Llera, etc. My sister's nickname is a homophone, which the dictation software never gets right. I doubt it ever will because it isn't a standard name. Sometimes I use the find feature to change multiple names back to the correct spelling.

I probably could work out several of these bugs, but I am too lazy to figure it out. I may or may not do it within the next week, month, or year.

Linguistically Speaking

I spelled my way to state level my sixth-grade year, yet I find many interesting spellings in my journal. My favorite is "doddled" or "doodled" for "dawdled." I frequently "doddled." I misspell "i before e" words often, especially piece and receive. Another word that has always stumped me is opportunity and Cincinnati.

Some interesting punctuation features include my obsession with ALL CAPS, parentheses, brackets, and excessive exclamation points. I counted 20 exclamation points after one word. Think I got my point across? I often put ANNOYED in all caps. My writing tended to be parenthetical, and it is still parenthetical. I noticed dictation mode won't add parentheses, instead, it spells out the word. So I gave up on adding parentheses (and brackets) while dictating. I add the parentheses, brackets, and ALL CAPS while revising.

ANNOYED

I record being annoyed almost every day in my journal. I mentioned this and the general negativity in my journal on a social media post. My friends mentioned how they often only record negative events to process them, which makes sense. One friend said it described her preteen daughter. Consequently, annoyed would describe my teenage son too.

According to my preteen self, everyone was annoying, especially middle school boys, my cousin who lived with us, my siblings, and my parents.

The boys qualified for a special category of annoying, which is laughable now. Being from a small town, most of the boys were in my Sunday School class, my German class, and other school classes. Some called me a robot or coppertop. One or two hit me. One boy swore at me when I asked him to dance. But then there was one boy who was the knight in shining armor that I mention over and over again. Generally, the knight in shining armor changed every year.

Most of these annoying boys changed attitudes in high school. They went from being mean to very nice. We girls suddenly changed to potential dates and girlfriends. Currently, I am friends on social media with most of these "boys," their wives, or their parents.

The Mundane

In my journal, I listed every step I took during the day. I thought it was a terrible idea to list every step in my day when I grew older, but it's interesting to read details that I would have otherwise forgotten. At the beginning of the journal, I wrote details in long sentences. After a few months, I shortened it to one or two words for the beginning and end of my day, e.g. "woke up, thought, ate, scriptures, showered, groomed, went to school" and "read, this, bed, bye!"

Mood Swings

I recognize patterns in my undiagnosed bipolar from my journal. I am a rapid cycler, which I see in my descriptions of feeling mad, sad, annoyed, and happy in quick succession. In one entry, I mentioned how I was having one of my "BIG" emotions. Now I call those emotional moments my "bipolar moments." I displayed these emotions toward my family and friends of disliking them one moment and loving them the next.

For example, I enjoyed visiting with my sister one day of Christmas Break, but I yelled at her the next day. She had accidentally broken my CD cover while sitting on my bed. She probably came to see how I was after I had a trying day. My cousin had thrown food at me in the morning and schoolboys had thrown my school stuff across the hall. Yet I recorded how "RUDE" she was along with those "horrid boys."

I wrote poems to deal with my mood swings. Many times I wrote of loneliness, yet I had friends and family support me. I isolated myself without realizing it. I wonder if it was my bipolar, hormones, or undeveloped brain that blinded me from recognizing the love others showed me despite the meanness or indifference of others.

My Love of Amy Grant Music Interrupted by Limbaugh

I listed every time I listened to a different music artist multiple times in a day. Amy Grant and 80s ballads made the top lists. The conundrum was having access to the CD player. Before my sister moved away to college, we had her stereo system. Then there was only my parent's CD player in their room. So one day when I stayed home sick, I complained that I had to relinquish the stereo to my dad during his lunch hour.

My dad had turned my Amy Grant music off to listen to Rush Limbaugh. I had occasionally listened to AM radio with my parents, but I wanted my music at that moment. For some reason, my dad thought he should have control over his possessions. And my parents often set the car radio to Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, or other AM radio talk shows. These shows tortured me to the point of head pain because Limbaugh and others talked so loudly (or my dad turned the volume too high). Ironically, I dictated this journal entry about a week before Rush Limbaugh died. I am sad to see such a notoriously loved (and hated) man pass away--especially from cancer.

When my family traveled to the nearest Walmart 90 miles away, I begged my mom for a CD player. I wrote:

I fought (words) my mom over me getting a present. I need a bike and want a CD player. My mom said to find something under $50 for a present. I looked through the CD players. I had my mom come and see what I wanted. (A CD player for $78.96 [about]). My mom said to get a tape player. I said “NO!” I said to let me go back to the car so they could buy me a present. I went out when my mom was buying everyone else presents.

I rode home mad. Listened to Amy Grant Heart in Motion [on a Walkman].

Well, I didn't get a CD player for Christmas, so I resorted to recording CDs to tape. I never mentioned what my Christmas presents were, but I didn't seem disappointed according to my journal.

Feeling the Love

In the subtext, I recognize how much my family and friends truly loved me. My sister recognized I had a bad day and came to talk, but I became angry when she broke my CD case. My brother gave me two Amy Grant CDs without me ever asking him. My mom and dad gave me rides home from school almost every day. My mom brought me dinner during play practice. And the list goes on.

I record how often I looked forward to spending time with my friends at school. We laughed during class and play practices. I talked with "Millera" and my other friends at school, play practice, and tryouts. I looked up to a girl the grade above me because she brought so much fun to play practice. Overall, I remember the giggles more than the loneliness.

Many times when I felt lonely or sad, I recorded how I prayed for comfort. In those moments, I felt God's love envelop me. Even though others may have hurt me or I didn't recognize others' love, God ensured I could feel his love.

What do you remember from middle school? Do you recognize how others loved you despite not recognizing their love then?

This post is on Medium and my personal blog.

Native American Astrology Only Feels Loosely Connected with Indigenous Cultures

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I am writing an introductory article for some astrological relationship website being tested for popularity. Before this, I had little interest or knowledge in astrology. Apparently, I am a woodpecker and a Cancer. I am crabby like a crab (cancer). I am nurturing and supportive in my opinion like both signs. But I am also impulsive, unlike my zodiac. Of course, it isn't one size fits all.

I know some Native American culture since I lived next to the Navajo Nation and two small Ute reservations. Some of my classmates were Utes and Navajos. In school, I learned some of their traditions and mythology. With my minimal knowledge, Native American zodiac animals only feel loosely connected to genuine indigenous cultures. It feels somewhat sacrilegious.

Native Americans are probably split on the idea. Some may agree because it has roots in ancient tradition, or some may disagree because it treats their religion lightly. I asked on Facebook what people thought and no one responded (maybe because it was late at night). I have no definitive yes or no on a Native American's opinion.

In the AstroWiki, I found this quote by psychological anthropologist Helene Hagan:

"... to pretend that their practices can be taken over by non-Indians harmlessly are indications of non understanding and arrogance. To fabricate new ceremonies out of bits and pieces of various Indian rituals, out of the full ritual context in which they are embedded, is to create psychic monstrosities. This, the fake medicine people are unaware of. Rituals have a context. They are a part of an entire fabric of a given society, and one ritual is only a part of a whole. The balance is in the whole, not in the parts. And the whole is still the full practice within Indian circles, founded on ancient Indian traditions, for Indian people. Others can pretend to achieve identical results with only outward paraphernalia and a patchwork of gleaned information as to the steps of certain rites, but they do not have the key to the whole meaning, the whole context, and how the parts complement and fit each other. They are crippling other human beings by subjecting them to only bits or parts of a whole system, without having the keys to the entire mental system. This is truly what is at stake and why Indians are concerned."

"Indian medicine men and women train from childhood. They are not allowed to practice until they have undergone a long experience of the powerful spirits or psychic forces they will encounter first in themselves, long before they are singled out for specific healing tasks by others. They do not appoint themselves. Rarely does a medicine man or woman come to practice before maturity, for these very reasons. There is not a hint of this wisdom in any of the so-called teachings passed around in the "circles" forming around plastic medicine people."

- INSTITUTE OF ARCHETYPAL ETHNOLOGY newsletter September l992 by the Sonoma County Free Press.

Apparently, Sun Bear, an Obijwa native, and Wabun Wind, a Caucasian, wrote a book called Medicine Wheel that much of the current spirit animals are based on. The animals are all North American species and vary widely. Some animals have morphed into other animals, like the Sturgeon to the Salmon. Many have changed from specific names to generic names such as Snow Goose to Goose and Brown Bear to Bear.

The zodiacs all match the same birth dates as the Western zodiacs. I believe Sun Bear and Wabun Wind meant for many of the characteristics to overlap to appeal to a wider audience.

The New Age zodiacs have commercialized sacred Native American symbols, in my opinion. Many websites claim that these spirit animals have a deep history in Native American culture. The animals do, but I doubt many of the stones, colors, traits, and elements are actually connected to Native American cultures. From website to website, the stones, colors, traits, and elements differ slightly or differ widely. To me, that's evidence that this is only tangentially related to Native American culture.

Seeing the similarities of traits and elements with Western zodiacs, it feels made up. I don't feel like the similarities are evidence that they existed separately and joined, but that the Western zodiac was superimposed upon Native American culture.

It may seem hypocritical since I am writing this article anyway. I am trying to be as honest as possible that Native American culture is only a loose base for the animal zodiacs. But I am not injecting my opinion, just being informational in the article. I may be hired to write more articles on similar subjects. Maybe just Western astrology. I will most likely spew nonsense but try to insert truth where possible. (You can probably tell that I don't believe in astrology.)

On the other hand, some people may feel like they are honoring Native American culture when consulting their zodiac animals. After all, it has some basis in Native American cultures. Honestly, I don't see much truth in astrology--just conjecture.

Truth lies elsewhere. Truth lies not in our interpretation of the stars and animals, but in the One who created nature. We discover more of the unique aspects of the stars and animals every day. Truth is how nature exists in the past, present, and future.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think this is cultural appropriation?