"For the first time, it seems like the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head."
– Stephanie Foo, for Vox
When the lockdown began, many joked that we’d all be wearing our pajamas, sipping coffee, and hanging out with our pets and kids while working from home for a handful of weeks at most. After that, everything would go back to the way it was and that would be that. Sadly, this joke has long since faded into memory, as we continue to attend meetings and school via the internet (when possible), and we increasingly depend on Amazon and grocery deliveries to keep our pantries stocked.
It is far too easy for the continued lockdown to increase the wear-and-tear on our brains as we endure even MORE time separated from the things we love, like getting together with friends or going to a movie, and each day we have to try even HARDER to tell ourselves that everything will be okay… “It can’t last THAT much longer… can it??”
In an article published in late April by Vox, author Stephanie Foo describes how her personal fight with complex PTSD (or CPTSD) has become a strength during the current pandemic. As she puts it, “I’m feeling the pain, but I’m not feeling the suffering anymore. There is no extra layer of shame. Because everyone else knows exactly what I’m going though, too.”
Read more here in the full article at Vox.