About four weeks into our coronavirus quarantine, I told my husband, “I feel like I’m working harder than ever. At the end of my workday, I feel like I need a nap because I’m exhausted.” I really wondered if something was wrong with me.
Then I started hearing other people talk about how fatigued they felt, so I decided to do a little research and guess what? Quarantine fatigue is for real. Even with all the Zooming and FaceTiming going on, human beings were not made for extended periods of social and physical isolation. If this pandemic has done anything positive, it has shined the light on the reality that just seeing people on a screen is not enough to satisfy the human longing to be in the physical presence of others or to experience a hug. The lack of that takes a toll on all of us, even the introverts of the world.
It is pretty unlikely we will return to what any of us considered a normal way of life anytime in the near future. This means we all need to be on guard for recognizing that we are at risk for experiencing quarantine fatigue.
Psychotherapist Paul Hokemeyer, Ph.D., author of “Fragile Power,” explains in a piece on Health.com that quarantine fatigue stems from that emotional exhaustion the pandemic has placed on our lives. “I’m hearing from all of my clients that they are exhausted from the sheltering-in-place rules. They feel unkempt. They’re bored. They’re broke. They want to divorce their partner and give away their children,” he says. “This pandemic has elevated the notion of powerlessness and uncertainty to a level we’ve never before experienced.”
Many can probably relate to this. I mean how many of us were planning to be the first in line for a haircut once barbershops and salons were allowed to open back up? Others were clamoring to get back to the gym, and should I even mention retail therapy? I spoke with someone who works at HomeGoods. She said the line to get in on their first day wrapped around the building. People waited two and a half hours to get in, and she said the wait to check out wasn’t much better.