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My name: Covid Fatigue; Expert’s name: Languishing
Whatever the name used the condition is the same.
Often heard are these laments: “Aiyo, did not feel like doing anything.” “So much free time and so little done.” “Aney, what is the matter with me? I cannot settle down to even reading a good book.” “Work keeps piling up, I don’t have the energy nor the spirit to do anything.”
Yes, with lockdown, one had so much time and peace and quiet to do much, whether it be crocheting; reading that novel that was shelved for later when time was available; catching up on emailing friends; or putting down one’s thoughts or fantasies in writing. But next to nothing was achieved. Why? Not laziness, lack of urgency, or push. Certainly not lethargy. So one suspects, very correctly, that one’s mind and will are affected by some insidious power – beyond recognition. It is a psychological condition. I felt it and named it Covid fatigue borrowing frrom metal fatigue, the explanation given, long ago, when the tail of a plane (I believe) just detached itself for no obvious reason. That metal appendage was tired, fatigued and so damaged itself.
I received this article which identified, explained and named what I called Covid fatigue. Adam Grant, organizational psychologist at Wharton, author and host of the TED podcast Worklife wrote: “There’s a name for the Blah You’re Feelings: It’s called Languishing, a condition of mental health that can dull your motivation and focus, and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021. It isn’t burnout – we still have energy. It isn’t depression – we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.
“In the early, uncertain days of the pandemic, it’s likely that your brain’s threat detection system – called the amygdala – was on high alert for fight-or-flight. As you learned that masks helped protect us, you probably developed routines that eased your sense of dread. But the pandemic has dragged on, and the acute state of anguish has given way to a chronic condition of languish.”
Grant goes on to explain that psychologists consider mental health on a spectrum ranging between ‘depression’ (despondency, feeling drained and worthless) and ‘flourishing’ or high spirits (mastery, peak of well being).
“Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health. It’s the void between depression and flourishing – the absence of well-being. You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work. It appears to be more common than major depression – and in some ways it may be a bigger risk factor for mental illness.”
Spot-on diagnosis
How true the diagnosis, how accurate the explanation. All my friends who were dispirited during and even after lockdown were suffering from this Languishing sickness, which is midway between being in the depths of depression and height of exuberance. You do have degrees of Languishing as I have noticed. One of my friends even had a voice change. When she called, it was more a croak at the other end of the telephone line (or is it ether or whatever the conductor of voices on telephones does?). Thus I would solicitously enquire whether catarrh was bothering her with a blocked nose, or God forbid, did she have a sore throat. No to all these. Aha! I told myself. Covid Fatigue. Now I will diagnose her funny voice as a manifestation of Languishing.
The term was coined by a sociologist named Corey Keyes, obviously recently. I googled and found he is an American sociologist cum psychologist working at Emory University, Atlanta Georgia. Adam Grant goes on to explain how Keyes came about identifying this new psychological condition. He was struck by the fact that many people who weren’t depressed also weren’t thriving during the last year. His research suggests that the people most likely to experience major depression and anxiety disorders in the next decade aren’t the ones with those symptoms today. They’re the people who are languishing right now. And new evidence from pandemic health care workers in Italy shows that those who were languishing in the spring of 2020 were three times more likely than their peers to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Adam Grant continues his explanation, rather scary it must be admitted, as Languishing affects so many, and very normal people, while depression as we knew it was and is suffered by comparatively few, at least in our part of the world where people do not have the time or ‘luxury’ to wallow in their own deviant mind sets. We have too much material troubles to tackle so the mind is kept on a more or less even keel.
“Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference. When you can’t see your own suffering, you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself.” Thus we need to search our mental selves, consider our emotional feelings and shy away from Languishing FAST. It has lasting effects if not undone. We need to help others too, if we are more emotionally well balanced.
Psychologists advice naming emotions as they arise. This naming was also advocated by the Buddha and told us by meditation teachers. “Name it” they say, “when a pain arises say ‘pain, pain.’ When you hear a sound name it – ‘sound, sound’ and it will soon disappear.” Grant says that along with the grief of losing loved ones to the pandemic, there was a latent sense of grieving in many people. Thus if they named it, they pinned it down, so much the easier then to eradicate that negative feeling. I thought it’s like after a funeral, we get relief talking about the person gone, even about his/her last moments. That’s not being macabre; it’s seeking relief from grief.
Naming it as languishing helps to “defog our vision, giving us a clearer window into what had been a blurry experience. It could remind us that we aren’t alone: languishing is common and shared,” writes Grant.
An antidote to languishing? Yes there is one at least, as of now. It is a concept called ‘flow’. Adams explains the antidote thus: “Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away. During the early days of the pandemic, the best predictor of well-being wasn’t optimism or mindfulness – it was flow. People who became more immersed in their projects managed to avoid languishing and maintained their pre-pandemic happiness.” Focus is a small goal, he adds. To me, ‘flow’ could be meditation. It surely will be most helpful. If meditation had been strong, we would not suffer Languishing in the first place. Being religious/spiritual is so very beneficial, and here I do not mean practicing rites and rituals, but being genuinely religious and contemplative on the Teachings of the Teacher we follow whether it be the Buddha, Christ, Prophet or whoever.
I quote one of Adam Grant’s final paragraphs: “Languishing is not merely in our heads – it’s in our circumstances. You can’t heal a sick culture with personal bandages. We still live in a world that normalizes physical health challenges but stigmatizes mental health challenges. As we head into a new post-pandemic reality, it’s time to rethink our understanding of mental health and well-being. By acknowledging that so many of us are languishing, we can start giving voice to quiet despair and lighting a path out of the void.”
Here we poorer peoples of the world score. We are generally much happier, enjoying great good fellow-feeling and companionship not among extended families alone but having loads of friends too. Lucky us!
It’s a sure great day when I wake up early to birdsong and the rising sun’s bright streaks. This in the midst of a lockdown and rising numbers of C19 patients and deaths; uncertainty of when the shut-in and pandemic spread will abate. Also loss of faith in government’s delay in inoculating the ordinary people of the country. We can also blame The PM’s ordering of luxury vehicles, the instant banning of inorganic fertilizers and Gamanpila’s government approved hike of petrol and kerosene prices to Languishing!! Wonderful as that might eliminate anger and disgust!