Normal Is Safe But It's In Uncertain Times That We Can Grow A Lot

To help readers cope with their anxieties in these stressful times, The Times of India has launched Talk it Out, a series under which our panel of expert counsellors will answer your mental health queries. This week’s advice comes from psychologist Sadaf Vidha

- Sadaf Vidha

I am a final-year student attending online classes, but these are not as productive as offline classes. I am very tense about my future and am always wondering whether things will get normal like they were before Covid. I worry if I will be able to meet my friends and family as freely as before. I have started feeling depressed. I want to go out and at the same time I don’t want to go out because of Covid. Please help.

— Distressed student

We like predictability and Covid has really thrown that comfort off. However, the curious thing about uncertainty and vulnerability is that often these are also times we can grow a lot. We hardly ever grow in comfort. So, what I would suggest is identify the unmet needs and see if you can find ways to meet them. For example, the need to meet friends and family is a need for company, and a fear of loneliness too. So, see if you could come to terms with that fear and also find some other ways to have company. While we are waiting for things to be like they were, we can also turn waiting time into growth time by sitting with our fears till they no longer scare us. We all have the ability to cope with things, it’s just that our brain is more used to avoiding that work and will suggest “go back to normal” as the first solution and be stuck there till we consciously tell ourselves, “Well, I’m here now, let me see what I can do with the present.”