When things seem disastrous, it is not the time for despair. It is time to address the issues that can lift us up. Physicians know the diseases of despair to be alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and alcohol related liver disease. We need to head off these problems by addressing the causes including diet, social isolation, and loneliness.
Why diet? If you have taken a trip to the grocery store lately in the great tsunami of panic buying, you might notice, as I did, the entire stock of snack cakes, sugary treats, and fatten ladened items we’re gone while the more nutritious items were orphaned on the shelves. The need for good nutrition and how to practice healthy eating exceeds the scope of this blogpost. – Just one observation, are the parents quarantined with their scope of age children seeing the impact of poor dietary choices on their children’s behavior. Imagine bringing a teacher seeing the impact of sugary breakfast cereals and lunchtime juice boxes, cookies, and chips every day.
Social isolation is not cured by social media, in fact it makes it worse. To see hours of images of beautiful people, cars, and homes does not bring us together. Not do the endless hours political nonsense and conspiracy theories help. We need to share our lives, not consumption orientated presentations. We don’t need to worry about foreign computer ”bots” generating content when we act like robots.
Loneliness is the issue of the day. We may have isolated ourselves for some time by the use of electronics, but now we are actually demanded to provide social distancing. We were emotionally distanced before, but now we have locked ourselves in cells. The answer? Reach out now in any format the works. Make a call. Write an email. Send a message. Do it now and keep on doing it until you can reconnect with other people.
This not a time for despair, it is time for reappraisal and reconnection. We don’t want alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and alcohol-related liver not to do we want the increasing prevalence of diet-related liver disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. First things first, join with others or join communities that help. Resist the urge to wallow in unhappiness and loneliness.