Due to the urgent nature of this topic- I have chosen to publish the unedited work in progress. Please forgive any grammatical errors and such.
Work in progress…
The United States, and many other countries are suffering from PTSD. A world plunged into the unknown, our rules, beliefs and ways of life turned upside down. Most people prefer not to think about it. They desperately want it all to make sense.
From this wreckage of society, come the scavengers. Those who use a legitimate (or perhaps not- depending on who you’re asking) medical crisis and exploiting it for unethical purposes.
For over an entire year, most of the United States has existed in a state of panic. As early as April of last year, people were already dissociating from reality. They escaped by various means such as movies, television, fiction, and outright denial.
Many escaped reality by accepting leadership of a virtual stranger, but whom promised every single day, on every form of media that he would solve the problem. That things are “great”, “our state is great”. People yearned to not think for themselves. Already, so much had changed- it was not possible for the average person to process both all of the changes to our daily lives, our fear of the unknown virus and simultaneously to ask questions of our new hero- thrust into a position of unilateral power over 5.6 million people.
Many people did not have the time nor the desire to question the rhetoric. Nor did they have the language to do so. Not everyone had recently taken a masters level course in epidemiology at George Washington University. Not everybody had extensive experience in investigative research.
A hallmark of PTSD, especially when the trauma is still occurring, is that the brain remains in a hyper aroused state- incapable of reason. “Fight or flight” instincts. For those that have overcome complex PTSD in the past, we know when we are unable to bring our frontal cortex (the rational part of our brains) into the situation. The trauma must first cease before a the brain can begin to make sense of what happened.
Our country is currently still in a trauma state, perpetuated by misinformation coming from the highest sources of government. Many doctors, nurses, and scientists have been effectively silenced by a multitude of threats- not limited to our careers. Verbally assaulted for asking simple questions on social media, for example, for few people would have the nerve to call me a fascist Nazi to my face. It has become dangerous to think critically. Asking questions is now asking for trouble.
Is there any doubt in anybody’s mind that we have not suffered tremendous trauma this year? Isolation, the unknown, death, a complete restructuring of our society and government as we know it. We no longer have representatives. We have a leader. One leader. This is not a constitutional republic. For those of us who have studied both politics and epidemiology- to watch this play out has been especially difficult.
For those of us who just barely survived Covid-19, the mandates have come as a final blow to finish us off. We have been deprived of all the essential things we need to be happy. We have no way to exercise, no contact with friends or family, no sports, no school. This impacts the morbidity of our lives. We fear going anywhere. And it doesn’t matter because so many places of amusement have now been forced out of business.
I do not deny that Covid-19 has killed a lot of people- I came close to being one of them due to autoimmune disorders that I have. But I have found little joy in a life without bowling, arcades, the gym, eating out, movie theaters, concerts, and congregation with other Jewish people. I have not been to temple in over a year. This is not my choice.
I challenge anyone reading this to do the research. Think for yourself. Ask the difficult questions and be ready for answers that you may not like. As a public health RN, it was a huge blow to me when I discovered that the CDC was hiding information from the public. I had aspired to work for them someday. I voted for the current governor. I feel so betrayed sometimes, how could I have known?
Short Stories by Kristina Tehrani 