Morphing masks into a negative psychological coping mechanism …

In 2022, people are increasingly unwilling to remove the masks they’ve been wearing for a couple years that were initially a government-prescribed way to battle the COVID-19 virus, even though in most places across the country mask mandates have expired.

Now a growing number of people are preferring to keep their masks on, not from fear of catching a virus, but instead in an effort to morph their masks into being a psychological coping mechanism.

A few examples …

A young boy who says he’s very shy. Instead of having to deal with the impact of shyness in relationships and social settings, the mask feels like a safe barrier that helps hide his shyness.

A 30-something woman who explained to a reporter that she likes wearing a mask in social settings because with it on she feels like she doesn’t have to try so hard at expressing herself as a friendly person, something she says she would have to do better if she wasn’t wearing a mask.

A-20-something guy saying he likes wearing a mask at work because with former employers he was told he didn’t smile enough with customers at work. By wearing a mask, he thinks he doesn’t have to address his work performance issues.

There are as many reasons as people as to why so many people as choosing to keep their masks on. The problem is that masks are a negative, and ineffective, coping mechanism for personal issues. Masks don’t resolve the issue people try to hide using them, all they do is only partially, and temporarily, mask a problem that will still be there when they take their masks off if they don’t do the harder work of real change.

Long before the onset of the pandemic in 2020, people have been known to try to mask their spiritual problems as well by disguising themselves when in their sin. Dr. Kenneth Gangel told a story to the Scofield Memorial Church back in 1983 of just such an effort:

In Basel, Switzerland each year the good protestant townspeople have a festival in which they all don masks and go through the city doing things and going places they would never consider doing/going under normal circumstances. The mask, which veiled their identity, emboldened them to do these things. One year, the Salvation Army, concerned about the abandonment of moral standards, put up signs all over the city, which read, “God sees behind the mask.”

Have you found an unhealthy use, and irrational comfort, behind a mask?

Masks don’t remove or resolve issues, and God still sees behind masks.

Scotty