We can’t get back to normal. It’s fair to ask that question, now that everyone who wishes to receive the COVID-19 vaccination has been given one. Yet, we continue to get inexhaustible coverage of all variants. We also receive new rounds, travel restrictions, mandates for masks, and checks on vaccine documents as if this were the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s strange that so many people are eager to panic and put in emergency measures, even when COVID-19 becomes more common and there is a rising toll. It’s as if they actually enjoy living in a permanent state of crisis—and maybe they do.
“Crisis-prone individuals don’t just like to live in a state of high alert—they seem to relish being called upon to fix all those problems that are causing the crisis,” Susan Krauss Whitbourne, professor emerita of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote in a 2014 Psychology Today article. These people, she explained, “seek—if not revel in—drama, become worked up over small problems, and tend to see themselves as the center of their all-too-frenetic universes.”
Whitbourne’s words were written years before vaccination passports could be seen as a blink in a bureaucrat’s eye. They refer to those who are addicted to disrupting adrenaline rushes at home and work. A large portion of the population appears to receive the exact same boost from a public crisis.
Elizabeth Cohen, a psychiatrist who is specialized in anxiety and psychology, stated that early in the pandemic 20 percent of her patients had experienced an improvement in their symptoms due to the introduction of the virus. She explained that the reason was simple. The Daily BeastTheir fear of the unknown was replaced with a real danger that they were able to face.
She said that many people say, “The horrible thing happened.” In many ways, you are not in an anticipating state.
Some people enjoy the disruption of their normal lives by the implementation of public health precautions, regardless of whether a previous amorphous disaster has become more concrete. University College of London researchers found that the UK lockdown was enjoyed by a third of respondents. A quarter of respondents felt they would rather miss lockdown than have it.
According to research by NORC at Chicago, 27% of Americans reported feeling less content as COVID-19 spread. However, the other side of the Atlantic saw 27 percent of Americans reporting that they felt more “on top of everything,” according researchers from NORC. Is it you who embraces such chaos?
Researchers at the University College of London found that three-quarters of the people reporting experiencing lockdown have higher incomes than others and are more likely to live with their children. These findings suggest that they may not have been as affected by economic or social restrictions. People with higher incomes are more likely to have the ability to work remotely. According to 2020 data, that translated into 60 million less commute hours per day in America. VoxEU paper. Remote workers, who split the saved hours between their job duties, leisure, and other activities, ended up with an average work week of 32 hours—4.4 fewer than they put in pre-pandemic. People might be more open to embracing a crisis if there is less time spent in transit, and they have more time for family and leisure.
Not to be forgotten are the health professionals who found themselves in the center of attention and politicians who assumed extraordinary powers. Newly elected governor of New York Kathy Hochul (D), declared a state-of-emergency in New York while scientists were still trying to determine what special dangers this omicron variant presented. It is hard to return to normal power levels and obscurity after being juiced by a crisis.
The lingering crisis is not explained by adrenaline junkies or those who are able to work in their pajamas. A Morning Consult survey found that Americans support travel restrictions, mask mandates and vaccination requirements. This was despite the fact that omicron’s publication has been challenged by Americans. People who like disruption might be encouraging or shameful others to embrace chaos.
Whitbourne, in 2014, wrote that “for crisis-prone bosses or co-workers the key is starting by managing your reactions.” It’s easy to fall prey to the “sky is falling” mentality of these individuals. The only way to return to normality is for those who want it to.