Coping with Overwhelming Feelings during COVID-19
Fellow Believers in Christ,
Following my last post on empathy, I received an e-mail from one of you with a link to a story about the rise of substance abuse during the pandemic and the correlation to empathy being too difficult on a large scale. The article posited that some people will, at times, avoid feeling empathy because it requires too much mental effort, especially on a national or global scale. The study suggested that a rise in liquor sales during the pandemic was due to people turning to alcohol to help them cope with the pandemic because “it can feel cognitively costly to carry someone else’s emotional load.”
Early in the pandemic, alcohol sales were categorized as essential business, and in March, alcohol sales jumped compared to 2019. Researchers watching our drinking habits say it’s too soon to know the long-term effects of pandemic drinking, but a recent survey of 320 adult Canadian drinkers suggest people used alcohol to cope with Covid-19. Increased alcohol consumption, increased solitary drinking, and strong motives for drinking were each independently associated with experiencing “alcohol problems” over a 30-day span in April, 2020.
Theodora Duka is a professor at the University of Sussex and lead author of the study on binge drinking and empathy. She explained to me that her team’s data shows binge-drinkers need to work harder to feel empathy for other people in pain, as evidenced by increased brain activity compared to non-binge drinkers.
How can we apply this finding to our current situation of pandemic-motivated drinking? Duka had this advice: “All I can say is to try not to drink heavily, be empathetic, and try always to understand and respond to the needs of others.”
If you have been struggling with strong feelings during this pandemic, and have a tendency to overdrink to try and cope with the weight of the emotions, I would encourage you to get rid of the alcohol and find healthier ways to cope. This has always been a challenge for believers living in a broken world. It was a challenge in the days of the Apostle Paul when he wrote these practical words:
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Ephesians 5:15–20, ESV)
See you next week right here at the intersection of faith and mental health.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Chad Wright