How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
The pandemic unraveled me, but not in the ways most might think. As someone working retail in a grocery store, I was deemed “essential,” thrust into daily interactions while the rest of my family isolated at home.
Our apartment became a pressure cooker—my ex-wife and kids rarely leaving, me shuttling between the anxiety-ridden chaos of my workplace and the tense silence at home.
Isolation intensified our natural tendency toward introversion, and the days blurred into exhausting monotony.
My CPTSD, always a shadow, became overwhelmingly vivid. Each news report of retail workers injured or killed simply for enforcing mask policies or safety measures fed my anxiety, anger, and fear. I watched as ignorance and hate played out dangerously close to home, heightening my vigilance, my exhaustion, and my trauma.
During this period, I wasn’t consciously aware I was developing a new philosophy. Initially, I was simply adapting, learning new coping mechanisms, and exploring different ways of interacting with people in stressful retail environments.
Gradually, these changes began influencing my personal life beyond work. It wasn’t until later, around 2024, that these adaptations truly solidified into what I now call Oddthentics—a philosophy of emotional integration and authenticity.
My frustration, resentment, and even anger toward the ignorance and hostility I encountered weren’t merely negative emotions; they were symptoms of a deeper internal struggle.
Beneath the surface turmoil, my mind and body were desperately striving toward compassion, hindered by the limitations of CPTSD and the brain injury I’d sustained. Witnessing how deeply the pandemic affected my co-workers, friends, my ex-wife, and my children, my desire to help and empathize grew significantly.Oddthentics didn’t erase my pain, anxiety, or trauma; instead, it gave me permission to fully acknowledge them and transformed them into a powerful drive toward empathy and compassion. By hosting these overwhelming emotions, I learned to see contradictions clearly. Life was both isolating and deeply connected, terrifying yet transformative.
Broken, yet whole.COVID-19 became not just a personal crisis but a catalyst for emotional awakening. It reshaped my internal landscape, teaching me resilience and showing me how trauma can be transformed into purposeful compassion, genuine integration, and authentic healing.
* I’ve decided to engage in the prompts that greet me when I open my blog dashboard. But as a way to honor the oddthentic nature of my blog, Im not going to edit these. There will be one draft. They will be the raw, unscripted reflections of my mind. I hope you enjoy.*
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