On Friday Worrying effect of lockdown boredom
I’M running out of things to talk about. Not just in this column but in real life too. Let’s face it, none of us has actually learned Russian or learned to crochet or sat down at a pottery wheel.
I’m not saving lives or helping to vaccinate the nation or delivering food to those who need it. (I did actually volunteer to help at my local GP surgery with the vaccination programme, but no one called me back.)
I’ve barely gone further than a few miles down the road for a jog and I’ve only used the car once in the last week to do click-and-collect at the supermarket.
All I do is run, swim, work, homeschool, fret about not doing enough work, worry about not doing enough homeschool and then collapse on the sofa with a glass of wine.
On my oldest friends’ WhatsApp group this week we found ourselves talking about face cream and closed nail salons.
If you saw my nails, you’d know I’m not a nail conversation kind of girl. But what else was there to talk about?
My work WhatsApp group was filled with faint nostalgia at the days we used to have to commute into the office – even on a late shift.
In fact, I’ve heard a lot of people this week who miss their daily commute; that time in the car singing along to the radio that marked the boundary between work and home.
Personally, I don’t get it. I miss going to the pub and going on holiday and having parties. I don’t miss driving or sitting on a train for hours.
My school mums’ WhatsApp group has largely given up on homeschool and instead is just talking about Bridgerton and The Serpent.
I’ve only caught glimpses of both so I don’t have much to add to the conversation.
My sport WhatsApp groups, who no longer have any sport to play, have taken to discussing the merits of leaving WhatsApp to join a new platform like Signal or Telegram instead. They’ve literally got nothing better to do.
There was a much-needed flurry of excitement in my family WhatsApp group this week as my mum got a date for her vaccine at Home Park. It’s pretty much the most exciting thing that’s happened since January 2.
The truth is that lockdown is boring. And I’m one of the lucky ones.
I’ve spoken to people this week who live alone and haven’t had a single adult conversation – except to talk about work – since lockdown began.
I came across a single mum of four who has all four kids at home – one with special needs - and no support bubble or way to leave her house. I know of pensioners who haven’t left home for weeks and their only human contact is the Tesco delivery driver.
In many respects, boredom is the least worst aspect of coronavirus and lockdown. And yet boredom is not something to be taken lightly.
A study of civil servants in the 1980s showed those who were most bored were 30% more likely to suffer reduced life expectancy.
Boredom also leads to increased alcohol consumption and even drugs. Thankfully, an occasional G and T is about the hardest substance I’ve turned to – along with every other homeschooling mum right now.
It’s been proven that some people would rather experience pain than boredom. In a study where people were left in a room for just 15 minutes with nothing other than a button they could press to give themselves an electric shock on the ankle, two thirds of men and a quarter of women chose to try it just for something to do.
The most worrying effect of lockdown boredom is the temptation to break the rules just for something to do. And that’s only going to make lockdown last longer, so it completely defeats the object.
Sadly, the only thing is to wait it out. And if anyone has reached the end of this column without being bored to death, I promise to do something more interesting this week like learn Russian or give myself an electric shock on the ankle. Just so I’ve got something to write about.
The temptation to break the rules just for something to do would completely defeat the object