Struggling with lockdown is normal
Lots of my clients are struggling. They are struggling more now than they have ever struggled. I think mothers are one of the groups that has struggled most. But it’s hard for everyone, for different reasons.
It’s made worse by the word “should”.
You see, my clients have all worked on themselves. You’ve worked really hard to stop your screw ups messing up your life.
The first lockdown was tough. But it was unknown, and it was so dramatically different to anything you’d experienced before that your struggles were obviously caused by your situation.
The second lockdown is different. You’ve been here before
You should be coping better.
You should know how to deal with it by now.
And so the conclusion you reach is there is something wrong with you. You stop seeing it as a circumstantial thing and start feeling it’s about you.
You know that thing where you are desperate for the toilet. Maybe you are on a car journey or something, and it’s going to be a while before you can stop. You are able to sit with the discomfort for a good while. Then you stop at a services and go to the toilet, and there is a queue. Now, all of a sudden, your need for the toilet is totally unbearable. You thought the end was in sight and then it was snatched away from you.
That’s where we’re at right now. The unbrearable bit.
But it’s just situational. It WILL change, and when it does, so will the scale of how much your stuggling.
There is nothing wrong with you. You are totally normal. You are just struggling massively with the situation right now.
Hang in there. And if you can’t. talk to someone. Vent. Talk to me and I’ll give you techniques etc. Or check out some of the videos on my website under free resrouces.
All you have to do is survive — and you can do that.
Dawn Walton is an author, public speaker and therapist based in the UK. Her passion in life is to help people realise that being screwed up is normal, and that everything can change.
She is the author of 4 books, the most recent is “We’re all screwed up (and that’s OK)” . In the UK it is is said that 1 in 4 people has a mental health problem. This means that 3 in 4 don’t. This is simply not true. We all have our screw ups. Maybe what we should say is that 1 in 4 people is currently experiencing some kind of mental health problem that is getting in the way of their day-to-day lives. In this down-to-earth, jargon-free book, Dawn uses her experience from working with hundreds of clients as a therapist, and from her own abusive childhood, to explore the problems we all experience as adults. She will help you realise that we are all screwed up, and that it doesn’t stop you functioning. She will help you understand where common problems such as depression, anxiety and addictions come from
Email: dawn@thinkitchangeit.com
Facebook: DawnatThinkitChangeit
Instagram: dawn_thinkitchangeit
Twitter: @ThinkitChangeit
Resources: products.thinkitchangeit.com
