WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE EVERYONE IS MORE IRRITATED THAN USUAL LATELY?
by Michael Foutz, MD
I can understand this being the case during the pandemic. It’s been a year or so, though, since the height of the pandemic and, yes, we’re having some economic difficulties; but it seems like the irritability level is still high.
Consider a collective lowering of emotional intelligence (E.I.) as the explanation. A recent research article co-authored by Ryan Gottfredson, author of the book Success Mindsets, pointed to psychological trauma as a cause of lower E.I.
This resonated with me because we’ve all been psychologically traumatized recently. But not all of us have recovered from the trauma and so many of us still have lower emotional intelligence than our better pre-pandemic selves.
The benefit of this explanation is that it gives us a path for recovery:
- Identify the trauma and the cause and manage it better – whatever that looks like for you:
- meditation
- yoga
- exercise
- counseling
- coaching
- lunch with a loved one
- more sleep
Self-care and attention to others’ needs is the best way out of this cycle.
Because jerks beget jerks.
But love begets love.
So let’s love our way out of this collective E.I. loss. Give people a break – at work, home, church, and on the road – and let’s rebuild a society that cares too much for and about each other to be rude anymore.
All ACMS member contributions are solely the opinion of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Ada County Medical Society, its Board of Directors, its staff, or the membership.
