Caromarlyse wrote:Quoting this as it resonated with me. It's hard to find reserves to draw on when they've been drained and not replenished over the last couple of years. I personally really don't have much to complain about, and am overall very lucky, but that makes me feel as though I'm not allowed to feel drained. I did think at the very start of the pandemic when there were articles about it being easier psychologically because everyone was in it together, that that did not sound right - usually if one person needs support, there are others who are doing fine who can provide it, but if everyone has been through difficulties, that's not really the case. And crisis upon crisis without foreseeable end is not easy to handle psychologically. I remember thinking that if I could just get through to the end of 2020, everything would be better, but that's not really worked out...
Also, to address the original question, I'm seeing this in my environment too. I was going to launch into a whole story, but I've decided it's not worth it! But, yeah, it's tiring.
The "we are all in it together" usually works excellently, but only for a limited amount of time. And this has been clearly visible. But I totally believe that it wasn't a similar experience for you, my point is not to invalidate your experience at all. But in general, there is a reason for these articles (other than just trying to keep people from mass suicides): As a species, we are made for short term intensive stress, that's how we've survived for billions of years. And we've evolved beyond most other species, we can tolerate longer and more complex stress situations. But there is still a limit.
After some point, it stops being the acute phase we are well prepared for and that brings us together. After that point, it starts dividing us (especially if we add to it a whole lot of restrictions meant to do the same thing), and exhausting the collective will to get through it.
We can get through a crisis together usually, but now we are exactly in what you describe. We are all facing collective crisis but also our own personal crisis (a part of which are just effects of the big crisis on the individual lives). More and more people simply have no extra resources left, especially psychological, to care about others.