Find out Your Pandemic Alter Ego! Bonus: Tips to Cope Up

Do you notice any changes in your mood or overall personality while in lockdown? If yes, then this is a little something called the ‘pandemic personality’.

Alright, it isn’t exactly a term, but we do see changes in everyone around us; in conversations, news and on social media. As we are in the midst of the second wave, all of us are well-informed about the severity and the shift around us. It could be lesser air and noise pollution or just how enthusiastic people are when you interact with them. Change has, no doubt, been the only constant.

At the beginning of the pandemic, all of us resorted to different ways of coping. Humans tend to make temporary or permanent changes only under drastic changes and restrictions. Given the circumstances, we have to! We retreated into different kinds of shells. While it became our comfort zone, we also got into habits or schedules we won’t be particularly proud of.

Read below to find out your pandemic personality and how one could keep their mind, body and soul’s vitals in check.

1. The 9 to 9- One coping mechanism we’ve seen time and time again is the ones flaunted by The 9 to 9s, the breed of people whose main mission this pandemic is to prove that they are task-oriented, superior beings both outdoors and in.

• What you’d say: “ Hey, I got to go, sorry my poetry lessons are starting in 5”

• What you’d do: Tell people about endless classes, schedules and how you are excited about everything while continuously planning for what’s next.

• What you can do: If you belong to this category, first advise: reflect. Taking up new hobbies and learning is never wrong. But an overload of new information often indicates purposeful ignorance of the old information. Ask yourself what caused the change?

Think about the new activities and write what it means to you. Do not keep everything in your head, we don’t want it bursting, do we?

While your enthusiasm is much appreciated, halt your train of thought and see what you want to take ahead with you in this journey.

2. (Over) Doing It Yourself: If your feed is filled with crafty 5 mins video and your house now has a designated messy craft space, this is you. Creative outlets for emotions are very common. This isn’t just a pass time but also a way for your mind to make you aware of how you feel. Recollect the day you felt low and picked up a brush. What colours did you paint? Not yellows and pinks.

• What you’d say: “Can you even tell this...this is made out of my old sweats”

• What you’d do: Apply jugaad on almost everything and think of a creative solution.

• What you can do: While you are at it, think of the waste. What about the things left behind. Pick up those bits and pieces and make something out of that too. Thinking things through is important.

The best way to be mindful is to understand the process, it could be bleaching your jeans or dipping the white tee into the dye. Now, what happens to the water or the bits you leave behind. Sounds prophetic, doesn’t it? Make a mindful choice.

3. The serial recluse- The Serial Recluse will flex their quarantine superiority over you via their extreme silence. While the rest of the world takes to Instagram to go boo-hoo over isolation, our dear recluse is in bed, reading a novel, their silence a superpower. Human interaction, whom is she?

• What you’d say: “I was built for the pandemic”

• What you’d do: Enjoy solitude trading almost everything for the strength to last through.

• What you can do: Human interaction is a necessity, trust us. We are not suggesting calling everyone out of the blue so do not panic. But, hear how other people can help you in ways unknown. Make it a point to ask “how are you?” to someone daily even if it is your milkman.

While you are on the bed may be put those screen hours into reading about the outside world or acquiring a new interest. In this ever-evolving world, relevance is super important.

4. Social Chairman: There are many whose life depends on giving you FOMO and gaining clout. Before the pandemic, they were always at press parties, on weekend trips with their best friend. You know all of this because they made a point of sharing all of it in detail.

Lockdown hit them hard, to begin with, but now they can be found uploading screenshot after screenshot of their virtual social engagements, whether it’s a Zoom party or trendy book club. 

• What you’d say: “It’s so weird how I always manage to have the most fun, even in quarantine!”

• What you’d do: Post endless content on every trend that hits the socials.

• What you can do: Create all the content you like but also the ‘behind the scenes’. By that, I do not mean an actual BTS of your photoshoot, but just an honest video about what you are doing. Record and talk about a bad day, who knows maybe you’ll help someone feel l