Am I Stigmatizing Reactions to COVID-19?

There's been a question on my mind concerning other people's reactions to COVID-19 as it continues to spread and as people continue to respond: am I stigmatizing reactions to COVID-19 (coronavirus)? There has been a wide range of reactions to how the virus is changing how we operate as a society, fear being a huge one. I find myself a bit of an outlier in this, which is where this question I've been thinking about comes from. Allow me to explain.

Am I Stigmatizing Others' Reactions to COVID-19 by Having a Negative Reaction?

I didn't want to write about COVID-19 or my reaction to it. Part of how it's been affecting my mental health is the sheer oversaturation of it. It's on social media, it's on the radio when I drive to work (yes, as I write this, I'm still at a point where I'm going into work), it's in my inbox as companies release statements, and it's at work as the company figures out how to handle this. It's literally everywhere. I can hardly go a few moments without it coming up again. It feels like chaos.

I'm not afraid of the virus. I am exhausted by its existence. I'm exhausted by the constant barrage of conversation about it and I'm exhausted by reactions to COVID-19. The latter is something I've been wrestling with because I absolutely see the need for precaution and I understand why people are anxious and scared over COVID-19.

I've been wrestling with that because people have every right to feel what they're feeling, and at the same time, I can't help but feel like it's too much. I've been trying to navigate this fine line between feeling like I'm stigmatizing how people are responding to COVID-19 with its impact on their mental health and expressing how this is all affecting me since I'm reacting to the reactions rather than the virus.

All of the conversations and imagery around COVID-19 are loud. It is overstimulation at its finest, and overstimulation is not something I do well with. It sets me on edge, it makes me feel like I can't breathe, and it makes me feel like I can't escape. And do I ever feel like I can't escape right now.

Because of that nagging in the back of my mind that to say anything about how I feel in the wake of how people are reacting would be to ultimately stigmatize those reactions, I've been mostly silent about how it's impacting me. On some level, it feels unfair of me to be responding this way when people do, legitimately, have something to be worried about.

I Don't Want to Contribute to Mental Health Stigma

Although I personally haven't been witness to it, I'm sure there's plenty of stigma surrounding people's reactions to COVID-19. The last thing I want to do is contribute to mental health stigma.

The unknowns of timelines of how long this will last has me a bit on edge. This is all still fairly new and I'm already worn out. I'm not sure I'll figure out how to navigate this fine line I've been walking with that question of "am I stigmatizing reactions to COVID-19?" thrumming along on repeat. I don't like feeling guilty for being honest about my mental wellbeing and asking for peace from the chaos.

I think one important thing I'm going to have to realize, though, is that I need to include myself when I say people's feelings and responses are valid. Maybe I can set that on repeat in my mind instead.