Like many of you, I’m a bit out of sorts and somewhat disoriented right now. Our collective mental health is deteriorating during Covid-19. Recent stats report an increase from 20-40% of adults struggling with mental illness since the advent of the pandemic.
Maternal mental health is particularly at risk. Helping children with distance learning, navigating exposure to the news, trying to keep life a bit “normal”, keeping family members fed and supplied, juggling career and income loss, all while isolated from helpful support. The invisible labor that women do each day requires dexterity for right and left-brain functioning. It takes skill. Some call it multitasking but this complicated brain process is much more sophisticated than the term suggests.
Think of how challenging it is to switch gears when you are concentrating. If someone interrupts, you must go from your task-oriented self to your relational self to pay attention to him or her. Focus is a luxury. If we are lucky, we don’t have to “switch” gears too often during a day. We feel better and produce more when we can stay in one zone (one part of our brain) for a period of time.
The effort for working, mothering, partnering, and surviving in the midst of an enduring health crisis is astounding, and this nimble right to left-brain movement is not feasible. Which explains why many mothers are in a mental health crisis of epic proportions. A current article caught my attention as it relates so I’m sharing it here for you: NYT article, Mothers Are the 'Shock Absorbers' of Our Society.
New Mother Hunger book is due to arrive July, 2021 and is available for pre-order on Amazon. In the meantime, here is an interview about Mother Hunger with Guy McPherson of The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Many of us are finding a silver lining in the chaos of 2020. Our human resilience is remarkable. Sending you wishes for robust health and moments of focus.
With love,
PS. For more information about Mother Hunger, I’m updating my Instagram page regularly with new material. Please join me there ~ send me a message if you’re inspired @kellymcdanieltherapy
Carey SippFormer Director of Strategic Partnerships
Oh! And I also loved the photo of the kitty-cat with the tiny laptop and appropriately creamed coffee. That was a brilliant and intriguing choice of visuals to go along with the great cartoon!
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