Dr. Winters discuses Quarantine Fatigue on Houston Matters

Dr. Winters was interviewed about Quarantine Fatigue on Houston Matters Radio show (Houston Public Media 88.7 FM) on April 28, 2020. You can listen here (Dr. Winters interview starts at 4:24), or read the transcript of the interview below.

Link to Houston Matters- April 28, 2020

Transcript

Craig Cohen:

Health officials continue to warn we could see a new surge in cases of COVID-19 if we do too much too fast, but will Houstonians who’ve been cooped up for weeks heed those warnings or shrug them off? Cell phone data released in recent days may offer an answer. People nationwide are starting to stay home less even as stay-at-home orders remain in place. So how is fatigue over isolation playing into what may be happening now and in the days and weeks to come? Let’s ask local behavioral psychologist Dr. Michael Winters, Dr. Winters, welcome back to the program.

Dr. Michael Winters:

Glad to be here, Craig.

Craig Cohen:

It seems we have competing instincts right now. On the one hand there is that ever present sense of anxiety over the coronavirus, concerns over its spread. On the other hand, the brain says, “Enough already. Let’s go outside.” How do we reconcile these contradictory thoughts as we’re getting, to some degree, mixed messages from public officials?

Dr. Michael Winters:

[inaudible 00:01:02] It’s such a tough situation, Craig, because our history … If we look, say, at Harvey, there we had a crisis but it was relatively brief in terms of how long the immediate damage was done. The rain was a few days. Within a few weeks people were out. Their house was destroyed, they knew it and they could start rebuilding. So it was relatively brief. But also in those things, 9/11, Harvey, you could see the devastation. And in this, unless you’re inside the hospital, you really don’t see that. You look outside and it’s a beautiful day. So I think those things combine to lead to what that cell phone data is showing, is that people are leaving more and more, even in places where there’s a stay-at-home order.

Craig Cohen:

The term being thrown around a bit these days is quarantine fatigue. Is that actually a thing?

Dr. Michael Winters:

Well, everything is new in the past six weeks, Craig. So it’s hard to look at any history, because the last time anything like this happened in the United States was a hundred years ago. And we don’t have any good data from that, and we certainly don’t have any comparable cell phone data. So everything is new with this. And so it’s really hard to track it or to really understand a trend. But it certainly does seem like people who at the beginning were saying, “Okay, this is for our safety. We’re staying home,” are kind of eking out a little more trying to get out just because it’s so bored being at home.

Craig Cohen:

Does it help us or hurt us to know that we’ll start to see more businesses around us open up here in the coming days and weeks?

Dr. Michael Winters:

That’s really tough. I think it’s an issue of really saying, “How do I get out and yet remain cautious?” I definitely think people need to be getting out, taking a walk every day. You cannot stay in the house. But that doesn’t mean that you just throw all caution to the wind and have a party with 50 people close by, dancing. It means trying to very gradually, with appropriate health information, engage in your life as fully as possible. But with some restrictions, some recognition of social distancing, and that the risk of the viruses isn’t gone just because you may be feeling fine and cooped up.

Craig Cohen:

It seems like at the heart of all of this is the question of how to fight cabin fever when you’re told, “You might be better off staying in the cabin.”

Dr. Michael Winters:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the other piece of that is Americans are very independent, maybe [inaudible 00:04:08] Texans especially are very independent. And so when anyone tells us not to do something, even if there’s a part of our brain that says, “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” there’s something about being told what you can’t do that kind of triggers a desire to do it. So I think it’s learning to recognize that might be a natural inclination, and to use good judgment and get out, like I said, for a walk, as long as you’re safely distant from others, following all of those kinds of safety guidelines, and recognize that we are eventually going to lessen the restrictions, but you have to still make some decisions. If you are in a high-risk group, for example, even if the movie theaters are open, you might want to stay home and watch Netflix and take a walk, staying distant from others, to be outside. But it’s not going to be just resume the life that you knew in early March.

Craig Cohen:

For some, staying at home these last several weeks has meant isolation. But for others it’s meant spending lots of time with everyone else in the house, spouses, roommates, kids, siblings, parents, whatever the circumstance may be. And maybe some of those folks are getting on our nerves a bit by now. What advice can you offer on that front?

Dr. Michael Winters:

Well, just to echo what you’re saying there’s some data out from Wuhan and from New York City that as the worst of the crisis, the pandemic crisis, passes, they’re seeing an uptick in divorced filing. So there is something about being cooped up with people, even the people that you love, that might make your nerves worse. So the kinds of things I would say there is even in a small space, is there a way to have some alone time, some time that says, “Hey, I’m going to read this book right now, and for the next two hours would you just do whatever you need to do but leave me alone?” Or getting out for a walk by yourself. It’s not a sentence that you have to spend every moment with that person. Fortunately, we have some beautiful weather in Houston right now. So being able to get a walk in, recognizing you want to maintain your social distance, you can do that safely. And there’s real benefit to being outside and kind of carving out some alone time even if you are kind of primarily being with others.

Craig Cohen:

One other thing before we let you go. We encourage our listeners to keep up with the news, and the show like this one is a good resource for that. Of course, maybe information overload is also a concern these days. As we always say, maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world to switch off cable news or hop off of Twitter for a while. Right?

Dr. Michael Winters:

Absolutely. I think there’s things that you can watch, some of the cycle news shows, that it’s the same information. If you’ve watched 30 minutes, you probably have all the information you need for that day. So you might look at saying, “What else can I do? Yes, I want to be informed, so maybe I just listen to Houston Matters, and then I turn it off and maybe listen to 20 minutes more in the evening or something like that.” Or, “I’m going to go online and check this source and then I’m going to put that away and go back to Netflix or actually read a book.” It’s still possible to do things like that, and those are great ways to engage your brain, but not get information overload.

Craig Cohen:

What is this “book” thing you keep mentioning? I have a hazy recollection of books.

Dr. Michael Winters:

You can Google it, Craig!

Craig Cohen:

Dr. Michael Winters is a local behavioral psychologist. Dr. Winters, thanks very much.

Dr. Michael Winters:

Sure, Craig.

Michael Winters is a Psychologist in Houston focusing on marriage counseling and therapy. Michael received his PhD from the University of Memphis and has been practicing since 1991.