Did you get your vaccine?
This seems to be a regular question during the pandemic. A few months ago if you asked someone if they had received their measles or flu vaccines it might have been perceived as being nosey to someone’s private medical information. But we are in the middle of a pandemic and people might feel the need to know as it gives some assurance as we relate to others.
However, these discussions around the vaccine are becoming quite a challenge in one’s close circles. Imagine these scenarios:
- A husband who has decided to take the vaccine while the wife has decided not to.
- The healthcare co-workers sharing an office space but each one of them has different beliefs about the vaccine.
- The sister with a medical condition and is afraid to take the vaccine because she heard someone with the same condition had reacted to the vaccine and can’t stand the grumbling from her siblings to “get over it”.
- What about the daughter who has to leave her kids with her mother for babysitting, a mother who is adamant that everyone needs to get the vaccine but the daughter is still not ready to get it because she is waiting for more research. This grandmother is not ready to lose contact with her grandchildren and has to “entertain” her family because these are the tough sacrifices families have to make.
These conversations in our inner circles are mentally draining and causing a lot of anxiety. Our inner circles are our big support systems. We have to learn to live with each other even with our different perspectives, beliefs, or ideologies even though it is impacting our mental health and causing some shifts in our relationships.
Whether you take the vaccine or not, we can agree on one thing; we all need some sanity back in our surroundings to solidify the relationships around us. Until then let us learn to communicate with each other, be empathetic toward one another, and continue learning about the vaccine with the hope that this discussion will soon be behind us. Hopefully, with time we will all look back and tell resilient stories on how we were able to navigate these tough discussions within our inner circles.
Discussions about the vaccine is a tricky subject and are impacting our mental health and relationships