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Mask Tantrums: Mental Health Issues?
What we see is not always what we think
If you are on social media, you and I have seen them. There are otherwise normal adults going on a rampage and behaving like children. They are going off the deep end over state or store mandates to wear a piece of cloth over their face. One of these people destroyed a mask display. Others have gone on screaming matches. A few have spit on others (and yes assault and battery charges have at times come.)
Yes, most of these people have been very white, very middle and upper class (a woman even said that she was wearing a 40K Rolex while going on a rampage at a Target in Arizona. More on her later.) So there is a sense of entitlement here. Why? They know they can get away with it because yes, they are white. However, we need to ask if what we are seeing is also related to mental health and the reaction to the pandemic? I don’t know about you, but I know that there are days that anxiety enters my space. So this is not a bad question to ask. And some have.
According to Steven Taylor in The Psychology of Pandemics:
Pandemics are events in which the population’s psychological reactions to infection play an essential role in both the spreading and containment of the disease, and influence the extent to which widespread emotional distress and social…