IT is said that if you can last five days quitting smoking or staying off Facebook, you are probably going to make it longer without too much of a problem. Psychologists and medical doctors say it takes two to three weeks to adjust to working on the night shift.
Marriage experts say you need two years after the wedding to figure it all out.
We in Metro Manila are about to find out what 60 days under a lockdown feels like and what the consequences might be. And the studies of similar experiences do not paint a pretty picture. In fact, after 30 days, life gets dismal. After 45 days, eating “bat soup” seems like a reasonable alternative to being held in quarantine.
With some 2.6 billion people around the world in some kind of lockdown, we are conducting
arguably the largest psychological experiment ever made on the human race. But we are not completely in uncharted territory because there have been numerous studies on the topic.
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal published in the United Kingdom since 1823. In late February, right before European countries mandated various forms of lockdowns, The Lancet published a review of 24 studies documenting the psychological impact of quarantine (the “restriction of movement of people who have potentially been exposed to a contagious disease”). After reading the review, I can say with firm conviction, “God help us all.”
Trying to get a handle on current conditions, a group headed by a health psychologist from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam made a study as Belgium—with about 12 million population—shut down the entire nation. Note that research had already been conducted in China where it was found that about 28 percent of quarantined parents warranted a diagnosis of “trauma-related mental health disorder.”
The study in Belgium found initially that 32 percent of the population could be classified as highly resilient and only 15 percent indicated toxic levels of stress. Fifty-six percent had “strong” or “some” resilience while 44 percent had at least some risk to “lockdown toxic stress.”
But things got nasty quickly. Belgium locked down the same time we did on March 18th. After two weeks, the study was made again. The scientists concluded that the only thing that could save the
citizens of Belgium was increased use of recreational drugs. OK, maybe not, but the results were scary.
The “resilient” people dropped by more than half to 25 percent while the potentially “crazy like a bat” (my term, not theirs) nearly doubled.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, people who are quarantined are likely to develop a wide range of symptoms of psychological stress and disorder, including low mood, insomnia, stress, anxiety, anger, irritability, emotional exhaustion, and depression stress symptoms.” That sounds like my average “Tuesday” these past two months.
The next problem is what happens after the quarantine is lifted. Looking at similar situations, 35 percent of the “non-resilient” group had problems going back to work and if they did, productivity fell significantly. Comparisons in the many studies done are made to post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the review of all the research and studies made by The Lancet on March 14, 2020, boredom and isolation caused a major part of the distress. So, maybe in this case, your ‘Friends’ on Facebook might genuinely be your best friends through the lockdown. Stay safe.
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.