Delayed Reaction

In 2001, I went on my honeymoon to Capri off the coast of Italy. In a sea cave known as the Blue Grotto, I nearly drowned.

I had swum inside the cave to find a young man treading water. He had been unable to find his way out  (the cave exit was beneath the waterline) and he was tired and in distress. In his panic, he tried to grab me and use me to keep him afloat. But of course his weight simply pushed us both under. 

I remember the air leaving my lungs and the strength leaving my limbs. The only reason I found the energy to break free was because I knew it would be horribly embarrassing to die three days into married life.

Luckily my husband was outside the cave and he was able to send in some life jackets to rescue the young man. At the time, when I’d recovered my composure, I just filed it away as a funny story to tell at dinner parties and put the whole thing to the back of my mind.

Or so I thought.

Several months later my husband and I were in Australia on a scuba-diving trip. We hadn’t dived for ages and I was really looking forward to it. We’re both qualified; in fact I’m a certified PADI Rescue diver.

But as soon as we entered the water, I panicked. The waves splashed against my mask, and I felt my chest close up. I couldn’t breathe, and I had to abandon the dive and get back on the boat.

What happened? It was a delayed reaction from my near-drowning months earlier in Capri. Something that I had laughed off as a strange experience suddenly resurfaced in the most dramatic way, and it was some time before I could dive again without hyperventilating.

The point of this story is that things can affect us even when we think they haven’t. And as we approach 2021, we need to be aware of the long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our mental health.

Lockdown, social distancing, isolation – all have taken their toll. According to the president of the Royal College of Psychiatry, the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest hit to mental health since World War 2. And according to the charity MIND, there’s been a 15 per cent increase in urgent referrals of people suffering mental health crises since March. Even when the pandemic is done, many of us may continue to feel the effects for a while longer

So my New Year’s resolution is to take more time to check with my loved ones on how they're really doing. To not automatically accept their ‘fine, thanks’ at face value. And above all, to let people know it’s okay not to be okay. Because sometimes we aren’t, and we shouldn’t try to dismiss it.

 I’m also going to try and read more books. I see on Goodreads people reading 200, 300, 400 books in a year. I mean, how are you doing it? Do you speed read? Have you got ten books on the go at any one time? How do you concentrate? With that kind of laser focus, shouldn’t you be breaking codes for national intelligence or something?

 Anyway, for readers in the US, there's a fab competition running right now for fans of Mortal Instruments.  

If you love Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters, urban fantasy or paranormal romance, click on the picture or https://bit.ly/3rFv4ac for a chance to win gifts and books including a box set of ”The Mortal Instruments” Series, a hardcover copy of ”The Shadowhunter’s Codex”, a paperback copy of ”From Blood and Ash” by Jennifer L. Armentrout, & a $20 Amazon Gift Card. Closing date is January 5^th  2021 at 11.45pm UTC.

 I hope you all managed to have a decent Christmas, despite the obvious limitations. And I hope 2021 will bring us some respite from the COVID crisis. In the words of Nina Simone, we’re all hoping it’s going to be a new dawn, a new day, a new life, and we’ll be feeling good.

Happy New Year, everyone!