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As I write this, the third wave of COVID-19 is spiraling out of control, and we are all facing a holiday season without the usual family festivities. I find myself tiring of all of the precautionary measures and yearning for our former normalcy. Collectively, we all have pandemic fatigue, including ongoing anxiety and feeling down about the ongoing crisis.
Now is not the time to decrease our efforts and pretend the virus is not raging. Across the country, hospitals are filling up, making effective care harder to get. This is true not just for COVID-19 sufferers but for any medical problem. Elective surgeries are being canceled throughout the country.
We need to redouble our efforts and engage in self-care even more. That means more social distancing, more mask wearing, and more hand washing. Fortunately, one area we don’t need to neglect is our mental health care. Here are some steps we can take:
Stay socially connected
Having remote Thanksgiving and holiday dinners using video conferencing can be an effective alternative to big family dinners. Make some dishes for friends, neighbors, and family and drop them off in a no-touch method. Then use FaceTime or Zoom or another video conferencing tool to share a meal virtually. Schedule virtual coffee hours or cocktail hours with friends. My three sisters and one brother have had an ongoing text message thread since March and text each other multiple times per day. We are more connected through the pandemic than we have been in years. We tell stories, share funny videos, share recipes, whatever comes to mind. Find ways to stay connected or reconnect with friends and family.
Maintain a good mental health daily practice
Our mental health and well-being benefit from good daily practice, just like our physical health benefits from daily exercise. Make mental health maintenance a daily habit, much like brushing your teeth. Even five minutes of mindfulness meditation can make a difference. TAO Connect has a library of mindfulness meditations to help get you started and keep you going.
Think about your thinking
One of the dangers of too much time home alone working and living is that our thinking patterns can be affected. We can start thinking more and more negatively about things, becoming increasingly frustrated with circumstances. It is as if our brain gets on a negative, critical hamster wheel and just keep running and spinning over and over again. Take some time to examine your thinking and get off the hamster wheel. Write some of your thoughts down, and then ask yourself some questions.
- Are your thoughts realistic?
- Are they exaggerations?
- Are you stuck in all or nothing thinking?
- Are you catastrophizing?
- How else might you look at things?
- What would you tell a friend who was having those thoughts?
Try to modify your thoughts to make them more helpful and useful. TAO connect can serve as a useful resource since it has some educational sessions along with some practice logs to help you examine and modify your thinking.
Get help: Telemental health therapy works
Research on telemental health has consistently shown that it works as well as face-to-face therapy. There is no reason to wait until the pandemic subsides or the vaccine is available. You can find help right now from your home using the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.
