What better time?
"Living here literally means we are shut off of everything," my child says.
Does it miss friends, friends, or life? This introverted child without any friends. I know some of its ideas about living elsewhere are not realistic. It never made friends because it never felt the need to do so. Before we moved over here it had sort of 'friends' at the schools it visited. I gave birthday parties but it ignored the guests and played alone in a corner.
Today it suddenly talks about how much better the world is if we stay in...
It's fantasizing since once in... the child stays inside, doesn't meet other people, is only talkative to us and if it comes to it I need to kick it outside. Outside means, it goes to a shop and watches the prices of articles. No way it specializes and the old schoolmates are forgotten because they were ignored long before.
So what exactly triggers the mood swing of this child or gave it that extra push downhill?
"You need to invest in relationships and can visit your friends," I suggest.
"That will be difficult if I need to travel by bus."
The child is depressed and I have no idea how to drag it out of the swamp it is drowning in.
This is not a child that likes to chat, not spontaneous enough to start a chat with strangers on the street, it will never ask one of the 'Facebook friends' how they are doing and the only thing left is the internet.
An internet connection that sucks, isn't sufficient enough to make homework in a proper way, a connection that causes mainly stress.
"It would be better if at least the internet was good. I could game online with other people."
For sure it would help because these days it is the only thing left to connect to other people (online watching for vintage, antiques, friends, people with the same interest and IQ included). As soon as this is not possible depression is on its way. It's what many people, young people included, suffer from today. The fact that vaccination against Covid-19 will start most likely in January 2020, doesn't make it any better.
If an always laughing 23-year-old judoka commits suicide (she would join the Olympic Games in 2024) why shouldn't a child who's only distraction, interests, and access to the world outside depend on the internet not be depressed?
There is no way out of the present situation except for keeping busy and kicking asses. If we are no longer able to go our way, decide ourselves, we start feeling depressed and truly believe the other place was better, life was better.
In reality, it was not and this meant I had to wake up the child out its's dreams.
Sure other places had more shops nearby but by now these shops are bankrupt. The restaurants are closed. There is plastic everywhere, you are only allowed to be outside with one other person, need to wear a facemask too. There's no Saint Nicholas, the word "Christmas" on products is forbidden, no carnival, no New year's Eve, no firework, friendly neighbors, or... friends. The sister it feels close with has two jobs and hardly to eat or time.
It's easy to fantasize about that better place but the fact is the better place is where we live now. Unnoticed, free to go outside, to meet and greet. No lack of food, shops closed, or wrapped in plastic.
The internet at that place isn't much better because providers lie, do not invest and we are not nearby the transmitter. The costs for a living are twenty times higher and those few friends have time if they feel miserable.
How to get out of a depression is hard to tell. Keeping one busy, looking for distraction can help but many depressed people (no matter the age) are unreachable, they want to be left alone! They are not the ones who call an aid-hotline to ask for help. The general AI is so stupid you cannot have a normal chat with them besides you need an internet connection for it.
As soon as restrictions are set, we feel someone else rules over us, the mind starts fantasizing about a better world. It believes what we once had was so much better. In reality, societies change. There is no specific or war needed to cause that. The main problem is most people are not as flexible as they claim to be. They can not handle any change. Change takes time. That isn't a problem unless the change happens in the instant.
