The Pandemic — Tips to cope with anxiety during the lockdown
With the current increase in the number of cases around us, it’s difficult to concentrate on our mental health. We spend most of our time trying not to get infected. The constant fear of who might have the virus or what would happen if we get infected fills up our mind leaving us no time to take care of our mental health.
How I’m coping with my anxiety and stress during the lockdown?
It’s hard to cope with everything that’s happening around. I myself have anxiety issues and get panic attacks when something goes wrong. Though everything seemed okay at the start, things started turning not so well. Lockdown extensions added fuel to the already raging frustration. I do admit it is hard to stay inside the same place all day long and repeat everything in a loop. I literally followed Netflix and chill for around one or two weeks. But what was I doing? It’s good to have some me time, but wasting a whole week in movies and TV shows didn’t seem good. Time was flying by and the more I did nothing, the more my anxiety and overthinking grew. My career, future, final year exams, my health, my aging parents, almost everything started taking a toll on me. Even the morning walk, supposedly to induce peace, turned stressful as I had to concentrate on staying away from people (this was before the initial lockdown). I kept overthinking and worrying. Stepping out for groceries gave all the more panic. Whether there will be a lot of people in the shop or what if people are not wearing masks in there and so on. Almost every time I sneezed or coughed due to dust or cold air; I could feel the rush of my adrenaline.
I saw people worrying about their incomes, how to run the family with no money, what to do for the next meal, whatnot. That moment I realized how grateful I was to have a roof over my head and a good hot meal every day.
What did I do?
Thinking of all this I went to sleep that night. The next morning something pushed me and I wrote my first Instagram post on depression. It went well I would say. I felt better expressing myself. People felt better reading the post and that motivated me to start writing. I went on to post a few more posts and soon ended up starting my blog. And in between, I made sure I used my time wisely. I started concentrating on my physical health, changed my food habits, and made sure to exercise every day. On top of everything, I started enjoying family time. By learning new recipes, playing games together, having food together, I felt more connected to my family. I made sure to keep me motivated and whenever I felt down, I reached out to my friends. Being in contact with others is very important during these hard times. We are all in this together.
What to do?
Being in a COVID-19 hotspot takes a toll on everybody living there. I see people nervous and anxious about the virus in news channels. And I myself live in a COVID-19 hotspot. These are some of the ideas to reduce stress and anxiety during hard times like this.
· Reduce corona time:
Reduce the time spent on watching news updates about the virus. I don’t say you should not watch the news channel, but reduce the amount of time spent on that. Watching more news and thinking about it for too long is not going to help. It only leads to more anxiety and stress. Just update yourself every day with the news and move on to your next job.
· Stay connected socially with people.
P.S: I don’t mean like going out and socializing with your friends and people. Stay in touch with your friends by contacting them and try doing something together online (say take a course, play some games or just have a nice chat). Also, this is a good time to reconnect with your not-so-in-touch friends.
· Engage yourself in self-improvement.
This is the time to concentrate on yourself. Improve your physique, try meditation and yoga. Spend more time pursuing your passion (if it’s staying indoors and pursue a kind of passion). Allow yourself to heal.
· Take it one day at a time
Try not to overwhelm yourself with multiple stuff. Take it slowly and have small milestones. If u don’t feel good, don’t stress yourself out. Stay calm and try doing small chores, let it be making your bed or preparing yourself a cup of coffee. Wake up and start your day with small stuff and try achieving small goals per day.
Somedays, I feel empty when I wake up too. But I try and keep proceeding with my life. This is now the new kind of normal. Empathize with others, yourself, and stay strong. Days will pass and life will go on now and even after the pandemic.
