What is PCL (Post Covid Letdown)?

After any natural disaster or traumatic event (e.g. fire, flood, hurricane, conflict zone), there follows a period of time where concerned people come together to support survivors and people in need. The Covid pandemic is no exception, with the difference that this experience has been an 18 month trauma, not just a 24-48 hour event. 

As a result, the support system built by family and friends has not been just a temporary lifeline, but rather a new normal. Additionally, governments have replaced employers as sources of monetary well being without which millions of people globally would have been out on the streets. 

After 18 long months, the percentage of vaccinated are rising, the number of new infections is falling, and the total number of deaths from Covid is leveling off. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the support system, from supplemental Federal unemployment benefits to support Zoom calls and mental health phone trees, are disappearing faster than global economies and personal emotions are recovering. This leads to Post Covid Letdown (PCL) which may be synonymous with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Not many people will talk about their PCL. They will just feel it and wonder why all their friends and family disappeared.

As fortunate survivors return to their offices, reboard airplanes, lunch with their business colleagues, attend concerts and baseball games – it’s easy to forget those left behind as if Covid never happened: the stay at home parent; the friends who have not been called back to work or found a new job; the retirees who have no office to go to; the children with whom they bonded during lockdown. Gone are the virtual cocktail parties and cooking classes; the family baking bread together; the neighbors singing operettas from their balcony; and the “just checking in “ phone calls between adult children and aging parents.

It’s back to business as usual – which we need to do. But we don’t need to rip off the bandages of companionship, caring, listening, and asking, “Are you okay?” Yes, we will all get busy again. But nobody should be that busy.