Behind the mask - the impact of COVD-19 on mental health

The impact of COVID-19 on the world is incalculable. Hundreds of thousands of deaths, families devastated, and lives changed forever. The pandemic has changed the world for most of us.

Behind the front line of people dying there is another huge concern for all of us. That of mental health.

As a hypnotherapist my profession is to help people change their unwanted habits. For nearly six months people in Scotland, as throughout the rest of the world, have had their habits changed but not through choice. The impact of this is now becoming apparent as lockdown in Scotland begins to ease albeit slowly.

Before lockdown, a trip to the shops was one of life’s mundane tasks but required little thought. If you go to the shops by public transport you are required to wear a face covering and ensure you’re socially distant from fellow passengers. At the shop you need to continue to wear a face covering, in some cases join a queue, and keep at least six feet away from others. You’re wary about touching goods on display. How many other people have touched that tin of corned beef? Have they washed their hands before doing so? You want to check the use-by date but realise you’ll need to handle the tin to do so.

You concentrate on keeping six feet away from others and you try to second guess others’ movements as they come into view with a trolley laden with items. Usually this works but there’s always at least one numpty who leaps out from nowhere blocking your path, or who doesn’t have the patience to wait while you’ve checked the ingredients of a tin of chicken korma and is up your backside with a cursory ‘excuse me’. In your mind you’re thinking ‘keep your distance you moron’ but the word ‘sorry’ comes out of your mouth – quite unnecessarily.

Today Mrs Smith and I were at the Fort Kinnaird shopping complex in Edinburgh. It was the middle of a Sunday morning, so it wasn’t overly busy and most people there were wearing face coverings. But anxiety hung around like an unwanted intruder. We went to a restaurant for brunch and, in fairness, the staff there were doing everything possible to follow the Scottish government’s guidance – only every second table was available for customers, a cleaner was scrupulously cleaning those tables and chairs not occupied and the toilets were plastered with detailed instructions (this cubicle is not in use; use the foot pedal to open this door, don’t push it; NOW WASH YOUR HANDS; and use the hand sanitiser on the way back to your table for extra protection) All very sensible and it’s reassuring to know these measures are in place.

But it doesn’t make for a particularly pleasurable experience. And, if you’ll excuse the pun, there’s the rub.

Mrs Smith loves going to the shops and can spend all day doing so. Not anymore. A visit to the shops and going for a bite to eat now has a layer of uncertainty, a feeling of not being entirely comfortable. It’s fair to say we couldn’t wait until we got back home. We didn’t feel unsafe – but we felt safer inside our house. That’s what nearly six months of lockdown has done to us.

While statistically it’s the elderly who are more at risk from COVID-19 the impact on youngsters is considerable too. Many teenagers are no longer carefree. My own teenage grandson just wasn’t himself when I saw him last weekend. He was quiet and reserved and preferred to sit in his bedroom rather than kicking a ball about in the garden with his admittedly overweight and unfit Papa. He is about to enter fourth year at secondary school, arguably the most important of all the years at school. His schoolwork was badly disrupted due to the pandemic with schools closed and, in Scotland, only due to reopen the week after next. He has missed his pals, the social interaction and even the teachers. No amount of Zoom sessions can replace that.

It’s the same for everyone, of course. But even if a vaccine is found and, a year from now, we’re heading back to the way things used to be, the impact COVID-19 has had on our mental health may be a legacy few of us want.