Recession and Community
Despite living through financial and societal crisis in my life, this is the first time I have been old enough to be directly impacted by the state of the world.
It is not an unknown fact that we are currently living through a recession. The looming crisis has finally come after three years of society surviving a global pandemic.
It crept up slowly with the cost of housing rising significantly, the increasing cost of food, utilities and gas, rent sky rocketing, banks raising interest rates, banks creating adjustments for mortgages that people began not to be able to afford, the housing market slowing and banks preparing for mortgage defaults on a large scale. Finding well paying jobs has decreased in availability and most humans are working two or more jobs to make ends meet. Food banks are communicating crisis levels of support needed as the rise of people not being able to afford food increases. Self-employed individuals have watched their businesses struggle as basic human needs have outshined any other spending on services outside of food, housing and medication. Despite some of these services being needed most when people are in crisis. This includes services like therapy, eye care, dentist care, physio therapy and massage. Businesses that are related to hobbies, art, pleasure and enjoyment are struggling to survive even more so.
This past weekend, I took part in a holiday market to sell some writing.
I made $12, thanks to a friend who specifically sought me out to purchase one of my zines.
The market was full of people wandering by vendors. It was common to hear parents say to their children, “We can’t afford that right now”, or “We are broke. We are just looking”. As children asked, “What does broke mean?”. People would come and look at items and say, “Things are tight right now, but I’ll take your card”. After three hours of no sales, I went to other vendors and asked how things were going for them. Everyone shook their head and said, “People aren’t spending” or, “It’s been very slow and I’ve had almost no sales”. Most people did not make back the fee they paid to attend the market.
I drove home at 10PM, asking myself what the hell I was doing. I am exhausted and scraping for any opportunity that may bring some sort of cash in. I have opened up as much availability for my therapy business as possible, I am attempting to run yoga classes again, I am trying to sell my writing and have picked up a second job on weekends.
I am lucky, and I say lucky because that is what it is. I have an anchor partner who is financially stable and another partner who is also in a financially secure position. They have stepped in to pay for bills, cover groceries, cover vet bills and prescriptions for me when I have been unable to. I have a safety net under me when many people don’t. I am not unsafe, and yet I am still feeling the overwhelming suffocation of a recession occurring under our capitalist system.
The question to myself at 10 at night driving home, knowing I did not make enough to cover the gas or my time at the market, is that I am trying to survive. We all are. Well, 98% of us are. The part of me that is struggling to sleep or settle after a long day is the fight/flight part of me that knows that societal crisis is among us with little reassurance of things improving. Some say we are on the verge of the collapse of capitalism. Although, I am not optimistic enough to believe I will live through that revolution.
As a psychotherapist, I provide reassurance and care to people every day. I support people who ask me what the point in continuing to live is. I support people who are struggling financially, in ways that I am able by offering lower fees. I am sometimes the person who offers comfort to people who may not have other supports in their life. I try to shelve my own fear, to shed light for others.
The truth is, I am scared too. I listen to people share their experiences in therapy and witness the stress of people walking around me in society. I see what is happening around us and am watching with other humans as our systems, the environment and society deteriorate. I look around and I feel sadness, grief, anger and fear.
The only thing I have found to be helpful through these last four years, is focusing on my immediate community. Humans have survived as a species in numbers and by sharing resources. When fear begins to take over, I bring myself back to focusing on the people in my life that I care about and trust. I bring myself back to my values and what matters to me. I bring myself back to the things I can control. I bring myself back to tangible ways to identify that I am safe. I bring myself back to ways I can share resources with other humans. I try to communicate when I need support and I remind myself that I am not experiencing any of this fear alone.
Neither are you.