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10 things to help your mental health while the country collapses around you during a global pandemic - a thread (by a mental health professional) 
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1. Take a second to check in with your body, just breathe. You’ve likely been consuming a large amt of really horrifying info, or thinking about it, or talking about it, and your body needs some rest. So even if you take the next 10 seconds to do nothing but breathe, that’s great
2. Try to identify how much time you spend doomscrolling on social media. Watching the news right now can be a like watching a car crash, it’s hard to look away from. Make a conscious effort to identify how you interact with social media – are you on your phone during work breaks
Are you reading the news first thing in the morning? Or just to pass time when you’re bored?
3. Set some boundaries for yourself. Protecting yourself from these triggers is very important. If you find that it’s hard to limit how much news you consume, then decide on an interval of time (30 mins, 1hr or 2 hrs) when you will decidedly stay away from it - also time...
... you spend working/studying does NOT count. I’m talking about free time. For eg. I’m attempting to not read the news in the morning at all, because it makes me feel like total shit before my 10am meetings.
4. If you’ve been feeling frustrated because you’re not able to be productive, because you spend a lot of time laying around, procrastinating and not being able to work or study, please know that this is NORMAL. You can’t put your mind and body through some really shitty things
and expect to function as if nothing happened. Feeling lethargic or anxious or numb isn’t necessarily alarming – you’re just having a warranted and appropriate reaction to the stress we are collectively dealing with. And yes, simply watching other people fall sick, and reading
depressing news and feeling hopeless counts as extraordinarily high amounts of stress. Remember you don’t have to be physically, tangibly working to feel tired and burnt out.
5. If you’ve been trying to do volunteer work like making food runs, verifying numbers and leads for COVID resources, but have been unable to because you’re too tired, it’s ok! Every minute, hour and day you spend not having COVID, staying at home, is another minute, hour and day
of resources someone can access. And that’s already a lot.
6. If you have COVID and you’re trying to be productive – GIRL STOP. Please take a break and focus on your mental and physical health.
Applicable to non girls also
Applicable to non girls also
7. Take breaks. There’s very little the average person can control right now, except social distancing and staying at home, and even then people are falling ill. Suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, substance abuse relapses, migraines are at an all time high. COVID is not the
only thing that can take a toll on your body right now, so please take a break. If you can spend some time switching off, maybe listening to music, or reading a book, or watching that awful marvel show that just came out, do it. Remember, you likely need more breaks now than you
usually do; for eg. If you took 2 breaks during the work day, take 3 or 4.
8. Take things one day at a time. Because things are so uncertain, and we don’t have a deadline for when things will start to look better again, or even when most of us will start to get vaccinated, just don’t make any plans. I’ve asked most of my clients to just get through the
day, and the next, the week, and the next, because our brains and bodies have gone into survival mode. It’s ok to not think about how your career isn’t going where you want it to go, or how you haven’t been able to work out consistently. Now is simply not the time to shame and
berate yourself for not having the perfect, disciplined lifestyle. It’s likely that getting through the rest of just today will be hard for all of us, so just focus on that, and hopefully being as less miserable as possible.
9. If you’re struggling and you’re not in therapy, consider seeking professional help. Worst case scenario your therapist will tell you that you’re absolutely fine and will send you on your way. If you’re trying to figure out whether you need therapy or not, you probably do.
10. Use your network of social support. It& #39;s really easy to feel lonely and isolated. If you& #39;re worried about being a burden on your friends who probably have their own stuff going on too, I understand - we all have the same thoughts on loop like a broken tape recorder and we& #39;re
all worried of sounding too morbid, too repetitive or too self pitying. But whether it& #39;s a close friend or an acquaintance, please try to reach out as best as you can. Even if you dont disclose how truly awful you feel, maybe its a good time to just chat, hang out and talk about
something fun and meaningless.
I hope this helps!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❤️" title="Rotes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Rotes Herz">
I hope this helps!
