Around the time of the record-setting and punishingly hot third heatwave of the summer and, as the fourth wave of a genetically mutating virus continued its pandemic way, I found myself edging toward a state of discombobulation.
Feelings of discombobulation are as awkward and uncomfortable as the word infers. A persistent bewilderment, like everything is out of place, combined with a slighter, but slowly swelling resentment, or even anger.
This is a type of anger which, combined with a sense of losing control of the events, can create slippery dangerous ground for a backward slip or slide into my own self-harming addiction and pathologically negative thinking.
Events made me feel like the ground started to slant toward the liquor store, and my truck became a self-driving vehicle moving toward thoughts and actions which are negative and destructive.
Despite the pandemic and its discombobulating influence, it is okay. I have spent some time alone, and with a group, practicing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a science-based and proven successful methodology for addicts to get to a self-empowered better pace.
As well as finding a balanced mix of pharmacology and healthy things such as meditation and food, which combine to have a positive influence on the neuronal and synaptic goings on in my brain, I have gained self-awareness, which I never had before CBT and meditation, to fight the discombobulating atmosphere of these strange days.
This new awareness keeps me calm no matter how much my poorly fitting N95 mask steams my eyeglasses as I search among the under-ripe avocados in the grocery store, and gives me the mindfulness to stay calm while witnessing on social media, or physically in our community, people refusing to adhere to community health practices citing bizarre anti-science conspiracies.
Individual health is completely interconnected with the health of the community. We need each other and must work together to get to a healthy place of minds, bodies and spirits.
While watching people protest the pandemic rules in front of a hospital while blocking ambulances’ paths to emergency rooms, it was difficult not to feel destructive visceral anger. When I stop and muster up empathy, I realize fear manifests differently in different people. Our brains want to comprehend and if they cannot, they will make something up.
They are called cognitive shortcuts. We crave closure and safety, however, with misinformation swirling like a tornado of information we will find closure with any bizarre conspiracy.
The World Health Organization has called this collapse of human reasoning on a large-scale an “info-demic.” In a chaotic time, clinging to misinformation offers simple explanations to random events.
“It helps people restore a sense of agency and control for many people,” said Dr. Sander van der Linden, a social psychologist at the University of Cambridge.
My new sober self includes a sense of mindfulness and strength which, hopefully, will pull me away from the chaos of misinformation and a potential relapse of negativity, to a place of mind, body and spirit health and clarity.
Robert Skender is a qathet region freelance writer and health commentator, and a regular contributor to the Peak.
