Abnormal responses to abnormal situations are normal, and that seems to be a lesson all of humanity suddenly learned. If we think about it for a moment, this may be one of the rare times humanity was in something Together.

Bojana Obradović

March 2020. The very first case of Coronavirus has been registered in the Republic of Serbia. Patient 0. We were not ready despite listening to the news for almost three months, first from the Far East and soon after from the neighbourhood – Italy.

Both television and social media were flooded with images of tin coffins, news of hundreds dying from this new, unknown, dangerous virus. We were shown videos of burials we did not think we would ever see in our lifetimes. All the demons of our transgenerational trauma came banging on our door, loud and incessant.  Images we never even knew we remembered. We keep hearing about death, all the time; death in which you’re alone, you – the one dying, and you – the one who cannot see the one who is dying one last time. We were not prepared for it.

Weeks passed, and with them came new layers of existential fear. Fear of isolation, anger, rebelliousness, divisions, different theories, they all became part of the everyday. While facing the health challenge, we also had to battle interpersonal relations, (dis)trust in medical professionals, science, systems, find ways to survive. Being human suddenly became a challenge.

Our mental health has largely been an emotional rollercoaster. There was fear – a healthy, normal reaction to objective danger; anxiety as an exaggerated fear and an illusion of danger that isn’t actually there; a hyperbole of helplessness, bitterness, disappointment, anger, envy, apathy, jealousy, depression, a strong desire to disappear, to have it all end.

Consequences are still unknown. Judging by what we do know about humanity, though, we always recover and every difficult period helps us develop, both personally and collectively.

Abnormal responses to abnormal situations are normal, and that seems to be a lesson all of humanity suddenly learned. If we think about it for a moment, this may be one of the rare times humanity was in something Together.

Psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists have also found themselves facing a challenge they were not prepared for. I would like to thank everyone who volunteered at the SOS phone and email lines, helping citizens by answering their questions and relieving their concerns; all the while going through an unknown situation themselves. We managed to organize and show care to those who need it without a handbook or preparation, isolated in our own apartments. We got better at it over time and we received handbooks, often written by our colleagues from abroad.

February 2021. Vaccination has begun in the Republic of Serbia. There is organized psychological support for citizens, SOS phone lines, support communities, and self-organized therapy groups.

We will be ok. Maybe not right now, and not all of us right now, but human nature has healing powers.

Once this is all over, we will have time and the opportunity to understand the impact it’s had on our personalities, environment, support systems, but also on our cultural and historical context, socio-political situation, and on our hidden, early, transgenerational trauma. Until then, we take a deep breath and live on.

 

Bojana Obradovic, Master of Psychology, REBT psychotherapist (joint training center of the Albert Ellis Institute in Belgrade)