There are so many different feelings surrounding COVID-19. Many people are feeling a variety of emotions, and no one feels them the same way. No matter how the last seven months have gone, mental health was impacted. 

According to Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) officer Elizabeth Herbin (12), “it’s so much easier to have a happy life with good mental health, or being aware of your mental health.” With quarantine, job loss, and more changes at one time than a lot of people have dealt with, it’s not surprising that mental health was impacted by a life-changing event. 

In the article ‘America Is Going Through the Five Stages of Grief’, author Shari B. Rosenbaum M.D. writes, “The new coronavirus is taking its toll on our collective mental health. Worn out, angry, worried, confused: These are just some of the emotions my patients feel.”

These feelings, accompanied by stress, are normal with all the change that has happened. “I think that it’s got a lot of emotional impacts on everybody because it is a really stressful situation and things are changing constantly. And so you’re trying to adapt to that,” LSE Counselor, Liz Rock, said. All these feelings are valid, and many of them are connected to loss.

Big or small, countless people have lost something in the last seven months such as: jobs, opportunities, time with friends, time with family, senior prom, loved ones, and summer camps. Loss is something no one is alone in. Dr. Rosenbaum says, “Right now, we’re experiencing a national grief. As a country, we are grieving the loss of life as we know it.” 

Everyday routines and normal life activities are now seen as old freedoms. Things that seemed so standard and expected became inaccessible and limited. Senior Lauren Van Treeck says, “I lost a lot of freedoms just being able to go places without fearing what I should be doing.”

And the loss doesn’t stop there. The New York Times says, “American life has been fundamentally reordered because of the virus. Concerts, parades and high school football games continue to be called off. Countless people have found themselves jobless and struggling to afford housing.” With loss in nearly every aspect of life, the change that comes with loss must be processed through grief.

When trying to analyze grief and gain insight into the feelings that are gone through. Loss and grief go hand in hand, and in 1969, Author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, wrote a book called On Death and Dying. In the book, Kübler-Ross proposed that there are five stages, or phases of loss. Each stage has varying length, and not all of them happen depending on the person. 

In her article ‘The 5 Stages of Grief & Loss’, Julie Axelrod breaks down the five stages of grief and what they each can look like. “The stages of grief and mourning are universal and are experienced by people from all walks of life, across many cultures,” Axelrod said. 

The five stages of grief are denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. While all these stages look different for each person, a lot of the feelings that impact us during a time of loss align with these five stages. 

Denial and isolation encompass a defense mechanism and telling yourself, “this can’t be happening,” its emotional rejection. 

Anger comes from a place of frustration with change, and being uncomfortable with the lack of control. 

The bargaining phase can be a step towards acceptance, when what is happening is acknowledged, and the bargaining itself is trying to work around that loss. 

Depression can be exactly how it sounds, but it can be internalized or shown. 

Lastly, acceptance has many forms. Whether it’s moving on, adapting to the life change, or literally accepting what has happened, the acceptance phase of healing can be the most crucial to moving forward from grieving.

Many people are in grieving, and according to Dr. Rosenbaum, “The five stages of grief apply in a pandemic just as much as they apply to a death or to the end of a relationship.” With the loss of so much due to COVID-19, it makes sense that these five stages would apply to the pandemic loss and grief as well. 

Dr. Weiss, in his article ‘COVID-19 and The Grief Process’ from Psychology Today, lays out how each of the stages apply to today, and what they can sound like. Weiss starts by saying denial can be saying “it’s the same as the flu,” and that anger can be saying, “Forget what they told us. I’m bored and I’m having some friends over.” 

Weiss adds that bargaining may appear as thinking, “It’s OK to spend time with others as long as they wash their hands before they see me,” and depression can be saying, “This epidemic is the new normal. I can say goodbye to my hopes and dreams.” 

Lastly, Weiss sees acceptance today as people expressing, “I can’t control the pandemic, but I can do my part by sheltering in place, washing my hands, and staying positive.” 

All of these steps are a process, and it takes lots of time and won’t be the same for any two people, but so many have gone through grief, and dealt with these stages. “I have definitely felt all of those things,” Rock said. 

No matter where those who lost something are, dealing with loss in a pandemic is something no one knows how to deal with, and it’s taken day-by-day. “I feel like I’ve accepted it at this point like it’s just a part of life and everyone’s just gotta keep pushing forward and like schools now back in session because like we just have to keep going like we just have to be resilient, with stuff like this and just keep moving with life,” Van Treeck said.