With the insanity that has been 2020 it is not surprising that many of us feel emotionally depleted, tired and numb. Scientists have named this phenomenon, that is especially prevalent these days, crisis fatigue (Schimelpfening, 2020). As we have extensively discussed in physiology, being continually pushed out of the homeostatic state leads to many manifestations of stress in the body. Starting it all a global pandemic put the world and each of our individual lives on hold, this stress continued as civil unrest and political devisiveness increased all over our country. As 2020 has continued to throw massive curveballs many people have not been able to return to the homeostatic balance that is so crucial to our welbeing. There have been increases in overdoses, alcohol relapses, and suicides in our society (Pittaro, 2020).
From a physiological perspective this constant state of stress and the unknown means that we are continually in a fight or flight mode which includes increased levels of cortisol and adrenaline (Pittaro, 2020). These continual high levels of stress related hormones have been shown to increase anxiety, depression, insomnia, heart disease, and weight gain to name a few (“Chronic stress puts your health at risk”). The reason that this is so important right now is the fact that it is occurring on such a large scale, to some extent globally but most certainly all over the United States. Harvard Medical School researchers have outlined 4 different stages relating to crisis fatigue the last of which is the most concerning, the fatigue stage, which includes the highest chance of people engaging in harmful behaviors such as alcoholism, drug overdosing and suicide (Pittaro, 2020). The outcomes of the pandemic have already been devastating but I fear that we will likely see long term effects of the large scale disruption of homeostatic balance for years to come. So remember, we are all going through it every day and have been for months on end, so it is important to check in on people consistently and get through this together.
(n.d.) Chronic stress puts your health at risk. The Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037
Pittaro, M. (Aug 10, 2020). Crisis fatigue and the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychology today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-crime-and-justice-doctor/202008/crisis-fatigue-and-the-covid-19-pandemic
Shaw, S. (Aug 19, 2020). Crisis Fatigue. University of New Hampshire. https://www.unh.edu/healthyunh/blog/covid-19/2020/08/crisis-fatigue
Schimelphening, N. (2020). Overwhelmed and stressed? Why you may be feeling crisis fatigue. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/overwhelmed-and-stressed-why-you-may-be-feeling-crisis-fatigue
I myself have definitely felt the crisis fatigue this year! Reading this post made me think about my mom, who is a night shift nurse in a burn ICU. When thinking about the long term affects of crisis fatigue and what that might look like, I think some good baseline studies would be to examine how constant stress affects those in high-stress professions.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a ton of research supporting what you said regarding engagment in harmful behaviors, but I wanted to look into some possible solutions. One study (Sasongohar et al. 2020) centered around healthcare workers in Houston Methodist Hospital suffering from what they refer to as "provider burnout" suggests that support (in this case, from the community and medical leadership), as well as policy reform to protect healthcare workers is crucial to fighting this fatigue.
As cases hit an all time high here in the US, it's important that we provide our healthcare workers with just as much support (if not more) as they were recieving in April. Crisis fatigue is affecting us all, especially those who constantly exposed to COVID.
Sasangohar, F., Jones, S. L., Masud, F. N., Vahidy, F. S., & Kash, B. A. (2020). Provider Burnout and Fatigue During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned From a High-Volume Intensive Care Unit. Anesthesia and analgesia, 131(1), 106–111.