Keith Battle - Mask Off - Part 2

I started this «Mask Off» series because I felt it was timely, given the COVID-19 pandemic and all of the social tension in our world right now. It’s because most of us are wearing masks currently, and rightly so; we should wear masks. They protect us, and they’re the right thing to put on when we’re out in public, among people we don’t typically hang out with. Like this mask right here, it looks like I may be happy, but it’s hiding a whole lot because, although the mask can protect me from the spread of germs, as I said in Episode One, it can’t protect us from all of the emotional pain and hurt that’s beneath the mask. I’m hearing more and more stories every day of people just losing it, snapping, and going off. People are having arguments with each other at work and showing so little patience; it’s very difficult. People are just going off, and it’s not just seeing riots on the streets; we’re seeing it right in our own homes. Among all of the horrors that COVID-19 has wrought, domestic violence is a growing scourge that lurks in the shadows. Indeed, there has been a stark uptick in reports of domestic violence and abuse, more commonly referred to in clinical settings as intimate partner violence (IPV), which has recently received national and even global attention. New estimates from the United Nations Population Fund suggest that three months of quarantine will lead to a 20 percent rise in IPV throughout the world. In total, the report predicts at least 15 million additional cases of IPV will occur as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. As I mentioned in Episode One of «Mask Off,» I am doing more marriage and relationship counseling than I did before the pandemic—far more now—and it’s because many of the problems in relationships being experienced now are really due to COVID-19. You see, what happened was, prior to COVID-19, when things were normal, there were many healthy and even some unhealthy outlets people had to kind of get away from each other and almost miss each other. There were things you could do: you could go to a sporting event or participate in one, go to a spa for a facial, manicure, pedicure, or massage, go to the mall to shop or dine in, go to a restaurant, go to a theater, or attend a concert. There were so many things you could do, like taking your kids to the playground or the park. There were so many activities to kind of get away from each other and to have these outlets to miss each other and entertain each other. You could go to a cookout or barbecue—all those things. And now, when those things have been stripped away from us, we’re just left alone with each other, making it very challenging not to blame each other for our boredom and unhappiness. It’s not fair, but these are just the types of difficult times in which we’re living. This subject matter is something I don’t have expertise in; I’m not a therapist, doctor, lawyer, psychiatrist, or medical doctor. However, I think this is a very important subject, and it needs to be talked about. I sense it around me in our church; I sense it in this world that mental health challenges are real, and we have to talk about it. People are struggling with depression; it’s real. It’s not something you can just lay hands on someone and make the depression go away. They can’t just walk into CVS depressed and walk out feeling better; it is a real situation. People are in a lot of pain, and the ignorance of those around people in pain might be exacerbating that suffering. So if nothing else, I pray we will be more compassionate toward those who suffer from depression. If you don’t take anything else from this, I want you to know that if you suffer from depression, I feel you and I respect you. One thing I want every single person listening to this or hearing this to understand is that you are not alone. If you’re feeling a high level of anxiety, depression, or any mental health challenge, that’s normal—especially now. Listen, there’s not a person I’ve asked over the last week how they’re doing on a scale of zero to ten, zero being the worst they’ve ever felt and ten being feeling the best they’ve ever felt. Not a single person I’ve asked rated higher than a six; most people’s highest number was a six. That’s normal. A six is normal now, even if you’re usually an eight or a nine. The COVID-19 experience has likely brought that eight down to a seven due to anxiety. Add to this all the upheaval in our world right now, and it’s hard to be anything other than a six. That’s normal; you are not alone. In fact, two of the Mount Rushmore characters of the Old Testament, Elijah and Job, expressed depression that was so grave that if a psychiatrist ever heard what I’m about to let you hear, they would have put both of them in a psych ward. In Job chapter six, I want to read verse eight from the New Living Translation. I love the New Living Translation; it’s just easy to read, and I think the scholarship on it is great as well.