Long term isolation is not a good thing

Okay. So I have a bit of a confession to make. Actually, it's not really a confession. But, as someone who made quite a bit of an effort to connect with communities whilst I was living up north, and who was aware of the importance of connection - when I first moved back down south in April, I didn't socialise for two months. I was totally floored as wave after wave of trauma and living hell came relentlessly upon me. My life appeared to be completely over and I was engulfed in darkness. The only people I really spoke to were my parents. 

A key part of me starting to feel a little better has been seeing people again. The first person I met up with was one of the Manchester community who has moved back to Bournemouth for a bit. And I've slowly been meeting various people who I had connections with. It's definitely not the same as in Manchester, where there is a huge spiritual community and so much going on. The friends I currently have down here are scattered throughout the local area. 

But I feel that it's a good thing in some ways. It's easy for me when I'm heavily involved in certain communities to have practically all my friends from those particular groups and feel like I should base my friendships around my beliefs. There's quotes like 'you become like the 5 people you spend time with' and this can easily be used as a way to discard people from your friendship group.

Right now, it's important for me to have a bit of variety when it comes to friendship.

But back to my original point. The best thing you can do to help you through a mental health crisis is to connect with people. Even if it's one or two people a month. We are social beings and are not meant to be isolated. There's good reason why the governments tried to isolate people during 2020 and 2021 - and it wasn't because of a virus which definitely existed but was also definitely exaggerated - I saw irrefutable, concrete evidence of that with my own eyes. It was absolutely criminal what they did. Sweden got it right - end of story. 

Isolation is painful. There's nothing wrong with a bit of solitude for a little while, and sometimes that might even be necessary. When your mind is so f*kkked that you're bordering on psychotic (and psychotic episodes are pretty scary), it's unrealistic to expect to be up to socialising. Emergency help may be required during these times. 

But when possible, connect, connect, connect. 

That is all. 

Image courtesy of Global Values Alliance