Hi everyone,
My name is Ann-Sophie.
I'm a psychologist and I would like to talk a little bit about coronavirus and mental health because as a psychologist I see a lot of people struggle with the current situation.
So here's something I would like to ask you,
Please reach out for help.
There are a lot of people like health professionals who are still here to help you.
Besides that I would like to share some ideas,
Some of which are from the World Health Organization that you might find useful.
So the first thing I think is very very useful at the moment is that you have a routine.
So try to keep up with your daily routines as far as possible or try to make new ones.
How would you like to create your daily routines and just create a daily activity plan?
Get up and go to bed at similar times every day can help.
It can also help to keep up with your personal hygiene,
To eat healthy meals at usual times,
At regular times,
To exercise regularly and also to make some time for work as well as time for resting.
And I mean resting that is actual resting,
No such resting as just spending time in front of your phone,
Scrolling down on social media.
I mean resting that makes you feel more relaxed,
More calm afterwards.
And also please make time every day for doing things that you enjoy.
So you might take a moment to ask yourself what do you like,
What do you enjoy,
What makes you happy and feel free at the moment?
And here's another idea that I have found very very useful.
It can help to minimize your news feeds,
Your social media,
The amount of information that you take in.
I don't mean that you should not stay informed.
It is very very important to get enough information how to keep safe and how to keep others safe.
But what I mean is that you try to reduce how much you consume media-wise because I have seen a lot of people getting very very anxious or distressed.
So try to find the newest information at specific times during the day,
Perhaps once a day,
Twice a day but not more.
Yeah then we come to a topic that is very very difficult at the moment which is social contact.
You know all of us have our difficulties at the moment to keep up with each other.
We have to you know socially distance,
We have to wear masks,
We're not supposed to meet up very very often or not at all in some areas depending on where you live in this world.
But try to keep the regular contact with the people you love and this can be using your telephone or online channels such as Skype or Zoom,
WhatsApp communications and you can also send them you know something small like a postcard,
A letter,
Whatever they might like and yeah whatever ever helps you to just keep in contact,
Keep in touch.
And here's another idea that I have found very very important to note alcohol and drug use.
So I really really ask you to limit the amount of alcohol you drink or not to drink a lot of alcohol at all because you know alcohol or drinking alcohol as a coping mechanism when you're feeling anxious or distressed can lead to substance abuse and further problems that you have to deal with after the crisis doesn't make things easier.
So I really really ask you not to use alcohol or drugs as a coping mechanism.
Yeah then we come to another point that I think is very very important.
Social media like use your social media accounts to promote hopeful stories,
To watch hopeful and positive stories but try to keep away from social media accounts that you find toxic or you know there's a lot of misinformation in the internet that you should stay away from like it doesn't help you and it doesn't help your mental health at all.
So you really really want to select the social media you consume in general but at the moment even more in my opinion.
Yeah then we come to another point discrimination like there are a lot of people throughout the pandemic who suffer from the COVID-19 virus so please don't discriminate them.
I know that fear is a very very normal reaction to the virus to the unknown but it shouldn't be hurtful to these people so try still to be kind,
To not discriminate against these people.
Just you know you might go and buy the groceries and just leave them outside of the house so that there's no contact or text them and tell them that you think about them.
Yeah just support them you know and what I have found is very very useful for my patients as well as for myself during this crisis is relaxation methods so what I would suggest is that you try to do a lot of like breathing techniques,
Meditation techniques,
Mindfulness techniques,
Whatever makes you feel more relaxed can really really have an impact on your mental health in general but also very very much during this time.
Another idea is to do some sports,
To go for a walk,
To go outside because as I always tell my patients it is really a very very natural antidepressant that you can use for your mental health so you should really really consider just moving in a way that suits you,
To go outside,
To enjoy nature,
This can also really really help and another idea is to be creative you know what did you like as a child you know did you like drawing or creating things,
Building things,
Whatever it is try to do more of it,
Try to re-establish it in your life,
This can be very very helpful.
Also you can try to read more instead of you know just consuming online media instead of watching a lot of like you know tv sometimes reading can be a nice break and yeah just try to you know go a little bit inside during meditation,
During journaling and yeah just taking time for yourself when you cannot go outside that much.
I hope you find some of these ideas helpful.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to send me a message.
I hope you stay safe during the pandemic both you know physically and mentally and yeah here's what I've started with one more time.
If you're really struggling please reach out there is help.
