While I am writing this, I am hearing some vehicles passing the road near my house. Also I can hear 3-4 people walking by, chatting. When I checked through my window I saw that they are neither milk or food delivery guys nor healthcare people, reporters or police personnel .. they are just people roaming around. We are also watching videos and reading about these young boys and girls roaming around on streets. Despite the fear of catching the covid19 virus or getting beaten up by the police, these people are getting on the roads. Why? Let’s try to understand
• People who are extroverts might find being isolated at home difficult
Extroversion is a personality trait in which a person has a high need for social interaction. Extroverts draw energy from being with other people and they are therefore seen as outgoing, energetic, talkative people. On the other hand Introverts tend to feel drained after socializing and regain their energy by spending time alone.
It might be a lot more difficult for an extrovert to stay at home than an introvert because he/she might find themselves a lot more lonely, anxious and drained by not getting enough social interactions.
Best solutions are online communities, social media, skype calls, group video calls. All these methods can temporarily cater to extrovert’s needs for social interactions. Decide a daily schedule for catching up with old and new friends, family members and colleagues so that you feel your daily quota of socialization is sufficed.
• Children and adults with ADHD might find it very difficult to restrict their physical movements.
ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a combination of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. In India, studies have found that the percentage of ADHD among children is roughly 11% and in adults it is roughly 5%. ADHD among males (66.7%) is higher than females (33.3%). The prevalence of ADHD among lower socio-economic groups was found to be 16.33%.
So there are a good number of children and adults who are currently stuck at home and are feeling tremendously anxious to move around and do something. They might find it difficult to stick to the work or activity they start because their attention is not sustaining on that task. Parents are finding it extremely challenging to create opportunities for children to consume their overflowing energies.
Solution to ADHD in this lockdown could be regular physical exercise. At Least one hour of good cardio exercise which makes the person sweat and tires him out. Exercises like skipping, jumping jacks, bar pull ups are good for children as well as.adults. Some children and adults need to keep their hands engaged to keep their mind calm. They need some fidgets to play with like stress balls, fidget spinners, tapping with football etc. Let them have these things handy to keep their hands occupied. Mothers need to forget about neat and tidy spaces, noise free homes for a while and let children have a go at their crafting, origami, drawing, painting and other imaginary play ideas as well.
Adults can occupy their mind with different board games, traditional as well as newly invented.
• Sensation seeking needs of teens can force them step out
Sensation seeking is a personality trait defined by the search for experiences and feelings, that are "varied, novel, complex and intense", and by the readiness to "take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences." Risk is not an essential part of the trait, as many activities associated with it are not risky. However, risk may be ignored, tolerated, or minimized and may even be considered to add to the excitement of the activity.
Sensation seeking tendency is seen to be higher in adolescents than adults. That's why we see more teen aged boys and girls on roller coaster rides than adults.
Despite the fear of consequences adolescents might want to experience going out on streets and that's why we see groups of teenage boys and young men roaming around on streets.
What can parents do in this situation is be more understanding of their children's adventure seeking tendency and have a clear conversation with them and lay the rules out very clearly. If harsh consequences are not motivating enough, how about positive consequences of staying at home- positive reinforcement. Increase their internet time for now or let them play an online game like racing cars, football, mountain biking etc to temporarily satisfy their trill seeking desires. ( close supervision and tapering down of these internet based activities are two important things. So that children don't have risky internet presence or get habitual)
• Family dynamics can play important role
Family dynamics are the patterns of interactions between family members that influence family structure, hierarchy, roles, values, and behaviours.
India has a large number of joint families and families where two or three generations live together and not all homes are big enough to give all the members enough physical space. This could be playing important role in making staying at home sufferable.
All family members need to understand that this is not a common situation or everyday problem so solutions also need to be quite out of box. Restructuring of responsibilities and roles will be necessary to make sure that only few members of family are not working overtime. The load of work is distributed properly. We need to distant ourselves from other members of family, if not physically, atleast mentally, for couple of hours to do some task of self care like exercise, meditation, reading or other hobby activities. So that we feel recharged again to interact with the family.
To summarise; All the above, extroversion, ADHD, sensation seeking tendency and family dynamics could be the reasons which make people vulnerable to cross the "laxmanresha" and get out on roads without valid reasons. But there are always work arounds and things we can do to overpower these barriers. It's important to Understand what mine or my family member's struggles are and finding right solutions so that we all stay home and save ourselves. We are all in this together, we can do this.
