After seeing an article in The Washington Post about how time distortions can be a sign of mental health disorders, I knew it was time to share a little tidbit about society’s norms. Not to try to demonize society’s standards because they do have their uses, but they are definitely not the be all end all.
In the article, it said that the pandemic has revealed an issue with time distortions which have come about as a result of the “collective trauma” we have all been under since the pandemic began. The author shared that researchers concluded “that time distortion is probably associated with mental health symptoms in the pandemic.”
Now think about this. During the lock down and even after the lock down lifted because of the number of people who continued to work from home, losing track of days and time became fairly typical. For those of us who have spent years staying home raising a family or otherwise in an atypical schedule, losing track of days and times is absolutely normal. Heck, I’ve been known to forget the decade! Yet suddenly this is a symptom of a mental health disorder?!
Don’t get me wrong. I do understand how researchers have come up with this model of reality. I’m just saying before determining you or a loved one has mental problems, you might first think about the fact time distortions are sometimes just common place, expected ways of thinking. If you don’t have to worry about whether it is Monday or Friday, what would cause you to dwell on it? Was and is there depression that has come about because of the pandemic? Absolutely. Should those feeling it be aware of and address it? Again, a resounding yes. But does losing track of time mean you have issues? Maybe and maybe not.
What is really striking about this whole idea of time distortion being a possible indicator of mental health is that time isn’t actually even real. We have made up this thing called time and now we are using our lack of awareness of it to label and define ourselves as mental.
I think in this case, someone got this a little wrong. And that’s my little soapbox moment of the day. :o)