How to Protect Your Mental Health During a Pandemic
A little positivity can go a long way
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, daily life for most of us has become physically monotonous, but mentally and emotionally chaotic. From constant fear and anxiety to isolation and massive layoffs, this quarantine has had devastating blows against our well being and the longer this quarantine continues, the closer people are getting to their breaking point. It has become apparent that if we aren’t proactive in protecting our mental health during this time, the worry and panic alone can be more detrimental than the coronavirus itself ever could be.
Panic and anxiety are neurological responses to actual threats that activate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), putting us into ‘fight or flight’ mode. But what happens when the threat is no longer immediate and our anxiety and panic is prolonged, causing our SNS to remain overactive?
The effects of remaining in an anxious state for too long can be harmful both mentally and physically, and in turn can actually make us more susceptible to the coronavirus. Yes, you read that right. Excuse me while I bring in neuroscience to explain. According to world-renowned Cognitive Neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf, when we are in this anxious state for too long, our bodies shift into a toxic stressful state. As a result, our neuroendocrine system — a physiological mechanism responsible for regulating important hormones — responds to this toxic stress reversing our DHEA/cortisol ratio which balances out our hormonal stress response. Subsequently increasing prolactin and ACTH, which then affects the HPA axis — the axis responsible for balancing our bodies response to stress. When the HPA axis is over-stimulated in this way, this can suppress or shut down our immune system.
Simply put, constantly stressing about whether or not you will get the coronavirus is counter intuitive because it can literally make you more susceptible to contracting it.
Furthermore, being in an anxious state causes our prefrontal cortex to go offline causing us to make irrational decisions and act in abberant ways that we typically wouldn’t (like buying 20 packs of toilet paper when the only other person you live with is your obese cat). The salience of managing anxiety is not only important for yourself, but also for others because anxiety, like the coronavirus, can be transmitted from one person to another through a process psychologists call social contagion.
Have you ever been around someone who was in a bad mood and then all of a sudden you’re in a bad mood too? Yup, that’s good ole social contagion. Think of this as an emotional form of infection that happens when we see someone else panicking and suddenly you’re buying stuff you do not need just because you see everyone else is too. Arguably, social contagion is even more infectious than the coronavirus. COVID-19 can be prevented by standing six feet apart, but social contagion can be spread through something as simple as a phone call.
How do we deal with all of this fear and anxiety?
It seems like since the outbreak of COVID-19 everyone has turned into a bootlegged therapist. While I have no formal credibility to give psychological advice (does a psych minor count?), I’d say I have as much credibility as a life coach — which isn’t much — so here is some advice I gathered from individuals who do have a credible voice:
Limit your access to social media.
World famous psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Judd Brewer recommends that we limit how often we use social media. Earlier, I mentioned how dangerous social contagion is and it is no secret that social media is the biggest vector of the widespread fear and anxiety we are all currently feeling. It can be hard to muster up enough willpower to not go on social media, especially because going on social media is about as unconscious for me as checking my fridge 5 times in an hour — even though I know nothing’s in there — so a social media blocker can be a really useful tool. For those of us who have iPhones (normal people): if you access your Settings > Screen Time > App Limits you can add a time limit to any app you’d like. While I recognize many of us use social media to stay up to date with current events, a healthier alternative is to go straight to the source — typically, the World Health Organization is a good place to stay informed while avoiding the chaotic intersubjevicity of social media.
Before we go on social media Dr. Brewer recommends asking ourselves: what do I need right now? Most of the time we will find that the answer is connection and instead of going on social media, Brewer recommends giving a spouse a hug or calling a friend. Many of us struggle to stay off of social media because we struggle being alone with ourselves which leads me to my next part.
Face yourself in isolation.
Being alone is something most humans severely dread. One study found that given the choice between being alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes or giving themselves electric shocks, a majority of the participants chose the electric shocks. Fundamentally, humans are social creatures so evolutionarily isolation is something that has serious physical and emotional consequences. Another study found that the perception of loneliness is one of the greatest risk factors for premature mortality and showed it being as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day! But see, that’s just the thing — the “perception” of loneliness is that which harms us, not necessarily being alone in itself.
There is a difference between being alone and being lonely and that comes down to how we perceive being with ourselves. Before the pandemic, our normal lives were filled with so many distractions that we never had to learn how to be with ourselves, but now that we are quarantined, some have no choice and are terrified. Instead of resisting it, face yourself. What we fear is not isolation itself, but coming face-to-face with the shadows that we have hidden so well. Ultimately, the only way out is through and when you run away from your fears, you only make them worse.
Your greatest ally in confronting these fears is acceptance. Famous psychiatrist David D Burns developed a technique known as the “acceptance paradox”, in which you expose yourself to your fear, completely surrender to it allowing it to run its course, reach its apex, and then fade away. In the end, you will discover a profound secret: fear itself is always less scary than our perception of it. When you learn how to be alone by restoring the inner relationship with yourself and becoming a friend to yourself, you will realize that you were never truly alone because you had yourself. As French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre once said “if you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company”. That being said, I recognize how scary the initial process of confronting yourself is and often when repressed feelings come up, it can lead to panic and hyperventilation so this next exercise is something to help with that.
Box Breathing.
During these tumultuous times, a practice that quiets the mind is essential. Breathing exercises are a powerful tool for calming anxiety and panic. Box breathing — also known as Four Square breathing — is a breathing technique that uses the rhythm of:
1) Exhale for a count of 4 seconds
2) Hold 4 seconds
3) Breath in for 4 seconds
4) Hold 4 seconds
Repeat.
Breathing exercises like box breathing hold a plethora of benefits like: decreased stress, depression, anxiety, increased empathy, better sleep, and even less racial biases (I’m talking to you Trump!). One thing in particular that this breathing exercise is useful for is helping us think calmly and rationally. When we are anxious we lose cognitive ability in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), inhibiting our ability to make rational decisions, as well as our dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPF), stunting our working memory. This moves us from a state where we make slow, thoughtful decisions to a state where we make unthoughtful, reflexive emotional responses. During a disorderly time like this we need our ability to make rational decisions more than ever, so it is imperative that we regulate our stress response. Luckily, evidence shows that breathing exercises like this one can bring your rational thinking back online. Here’s a little diagram to help.
Shift your perspective.
This time is hard for everyone, but at the end of the day what is good or bad is framed by our perspective. Many individuals are upset by the fact that they are stuck in the house, but if we reframe this perspective to something positive, then we have the ability to find joy — even in these disconcerting times. Instead of viewing this as the death of your ‘normal life’ ask yourself “how can I make this situation work to my advantage?”. Remember that book that you said you were gonna read but became a coaster or how you were gonna start doing yoga but could never find the time? Well now you have it. Instead of focusing on everything that you’ve lost, choose to be grateful for what you have.
Gratitude is our superpower during tough times. There is a multiplicity of benefits ranging from increased resiliency and happiness, decreased anxiety and depression, and better quality sleep and relationships. In our day-to-day lives, if we can be grateful for what we have during a hard time, then we’ll be overwhelmed with gratitude during the good times.
Gratitude journals can be made by creating a list of everything you’re thankful for, whether it’s the people you love or the fact that you have eyes that can view this screen. There’s an infinite list of things you can choose from so long as they are meaningful to you. Once it’s made, meditate on this list and really visualize the little things that bring you happiness or that you might take for granted. After doing this for a couple of days, your brain will slowly start to rewire to focus more on what you have, rather than what you don’t, which in turn will make you happier. For most, this has been a terrifying time filled with fear and tragedy, but simultaneously, this has been a time for people to spend quality time with their family — a time where people come together to help one another, and a time where we can finally pause and take a good look at our lives.
Ultimately, your perspective can be your power or your prison.
You choose.
Forgive yourself for not being productive.
This is a quarantine — not a grind-athon. This can definitely be a great time to be productive, but many are finding themselves in a constant loop of really wanting to be productive: maybe go for a run or learn a new skill, but instead, end up sleeping in until 2 pm, then staying awake until 4 am binge-watching Westworld, and finishing a tub of ice cream in one sitting — feeling guilty about it and then repeating the next day (okay, maybe that’s just me). If anyone else is stuck in a constant loop of being unproductive and wondering why they can’t just get stuff done, it’s perfectly okay, and it may be less of your fault than you realize.
When we are in states of uncertainty and anxiety like the one we are in now, the brain’s natural tendency is to move towards comfort as quickly as possible — and for many of us — our brain defaults to being lazy because it is what is comfortable and safe. Uncomfortability in small, regulated doses is good for productivity, but when we are in prolonged states of uncertainty and uncomfortability like the one we are currently in, it can inhibit us from being productive. So next time you find yourself really wanting to work out or finish a project but not being able to; instead of telling yourself “If I can’t be productive during this quarantine, then I can’t ever be productive,” tell yourself that it is okay you didn’t meet your goal and understand that difficult times make for more difficulty in meeting one’s goals.
Ultimately, I believe we need new standards for what we view as productive during this pandemic. Living within the context of a quarantine, our standards for everyday life have drastically changed. Our standards of safety have changed, our standards of hygiene have changed, our standards of education have changed — so it would only make sense that our standards of what we view as productivity would change too. Instead of judging yourself off of how much you’ve worked out or how many new recipes you’ve learned, maybe we should just be proud of ourselves for staying indoors, being more present, being able to be alone, or getting more in touch with ourselves. The next time someone asks what we have been up to and you feel embarrassed because you haven’t been “productive”, reply with the wisdom of the stoic philosopher Hecato of Rhodes, who once said: “What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself”.
Although this quarantine presents difficult times for everybody, one thing you can do for yourself and others (other than social distancing) is to choose to stay calm and spread positivity. Earlier, I outlined the negative aspects of social contagion, but just like we can spread negative emotions, we can spread positive emotions as well. We have the power to meet a stranger’s worrisome face with a warm smile — ensuring them that everything will be okay. We have the power to look fear in the face and greet it with tranquility and a peace of mind. Ultimately, we have the power to walk out of this quarantine having grown in ways we never could have previously imagined.
As Kitty O’Meara expressed in her beautiful poem “The People Stayed Home”:
“And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created ways to live and heal the earth fully as they had been healed.”
