COVID – Who is not afraid? Who is not worried about the current situation or this coronavirus pandemic which we do not seem to see the end of? For some, this fear is expressed by anger; they feel threatened on all sides. Others feel the need to flee, to play the ostrich to afford a little respite …
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The fourth wave, the debates on vaccines, the health pass and its oppositions. Covid threatens our physical health, but also our well-being. The pandemic is everywhere, it follows us and avoidance strategies now punctuate our daily lives.
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Since the third wave, Thomas, 27, has had anxiety attacks “several times a week”. This is the first time he’s seen this type of episode. “They arrive in the evening, after work,” says the young man who works in a vaccination center in eastern France.
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“It has become a taboo subject with my friends”
All day long, he keeps his head in the handlebars: “I am very focused, I do things quickly and well. I enjoy working there, I’m in a place that fights against the epidemic, it gives me a boost of motivation when I think about it ”.
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But when the pressure drops, his thoughts catch up with him. The young man experienced the various confinements very badly. And since he started working in this vaccination center, even if he feels useful, he begins to lose hope. “Are we going to get out of this one day? Will we always live in fear? ”He asks himself.
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So in the rare moments he spends with his friends, Thomas never talks about the Covid. “It’s a taboo subject. We did not say it clearly, but we do not talk about it. It happened naturally. ” And Thomas needs this space to get his head out of the water. Notably because he sees his loved ones less and less. “We are not really at ease, we are no longer 100% at the moment. There is the fear of being contaminated, the fear of contaminating. We don’t have parties like we used to. ”
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“When you go out, you are never quiet,” confirms Nadine. At 45, this Bordeaux journalist is also trying to preserve her bubble without Covid at all costs. In July, she preferred to go without a “long planned” dinner with a friend for this reason. “I knew we were bound to talk about the Covid at one point or another, so I canceled.”
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“I’m getting enough”
It may seem final, but she made this decision after a session with her therapist. “I asked him if it was legitimate to forbid people around me to talk about it. She reassured me and told me that many of her patients felt the same need and that you shouldn’t hesitate to express it. ”
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Even if she is afraid to pass for “a dictator” to those close to her, she changes her family’s habits. “Normally, we dine in front of the news, but I change the channel now, unless they want to because such and such a report interests them.”
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Despite her best efforts, she could not avoid talking about it with her sister and her brother-in-law who came to visit her recently. A moment all the more delicate, as this man refuses to be vaccinated. “I was silent the whole conversation and then I said ‘everyone has their own choice’ and the discussion ended there, we moved on.”
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Audrey, 32, who works in Paris, pushes her headphones into her ears as soon as she hears someone talking about the Covid. “I put myself in my bubble”, she explains, as one would speak of a survival reflex. “As soon as I see an article on the Covid, I close the page I was on and I go less and less on social networks.”
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The 30-something is impatiently awaiting her second dose of vaccine, she who has only one obsession by then: catching the Covid. Audrey, like Nadine and Thomas, feels “exhausted”. “I was extremely stressed at the idea of getting vaccinated, I did a lot of information before, and since I did (early July, Editor’s note), I cut everything. I no longer watch the news whereas before, in the evening, I used to leave BFMTV in the background. But there, clearly, I saturate, I become borderline hypochondriac. ”
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A summer as far away as possible from the Covid
But not all situations are resolved as easily as by turning off the television. “In August, I’ll go on vacation to my parents,” says Audrey, “I’m sure we’ll talk about it. I am already afraid to hear my mother in her anti-vaccine and conspiratorial delusions. ”
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After this family stay, she will fly to Croatia with friends and hopes to drive the Covid out of her thoughts. For Nadine, the equation will be more difficult, she would like to be able to have peace of mind during her vacation, but without entering into the confrontation about the Covid. “I tell myself I should call the campsite we booked in August, but I don’t dare. I would like to know if there is a health pass control at the entrance ”, she worries.
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For Thomas, the consequences of his anxiety are being felt today. “I can’t predict anything. I’m not going on vacation this summer, I don’t know if it’s worth it. ” But he remains motivated by his mission. “I remain focused on the goal, to vaccinate and protect people as quickly as possible.
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See also on The HuffPost: “And you, are you vaccinated?” This question annoys you, here’s how to answer
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