COVID-19 Effects To Your Mental Health

COVID-19 and Mental Health

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Mental Wellness During a Pandemic

The Importance of Mental Health Treatment During COVID-19

Living in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, a couple of new realities have been put into effect. Just a few of the more common of these new realities include: Being laid-off from jobs or temporarily unemployed, kids being at home during the day and having new home-schooling responsibilities, lack of interaction between friends, family members, and work colleagues.

The New Normal

Naturally, trying to suddenly adjust to different social distancing or socially isolated daily routines can propose many challenges and produce all kinds of discomforts. These circumstances cause the thoughts, feelings, and other emotions of many people to be geared towards the fearful thinking of what would happen if they were to contract the virus.

Worrying about the people closest to us who may be particularly at high-risk can really take a toll and cause a variety of challenging mental health effects such as psychological distress, anxiety, and depression. Knowing what the virus is capable of doing to an individual's mental and physical health. Specifically, those with existing physical or mental health conditions can be straining as the concern for other growth.

Mental Health Care During Lockdowns

Research recently obtained from Chinese officials, according to the Journal of General Psychiatry, approximately 35% of people experienced amounts of mental distress that can result in the form of mental illness during only the first month of the pandemic. Mental health professionals agree that these levels have been seen to be continuous as the disease spread throughout the world in the short months that followed.

It has been reported that hundreds of thousands of individuals have died from their symptoms all around the world, with many more experiencing the virus symptoms even long after leaving the medical facility where they were being treated.

However, as well as causing major physical health issues, the pandemic has also been taking a toll on people's mental health. Although not very well reported, COVID-19 has also had disastrous effects on a substantial amount of people's well-being that has required some form of mental health services across nearly every country that suffered a more severe outbreak.

What Can You Do?

Many countries, including the United States, have had many different measures that restrict specific everyday movements to minimize the number of COVID-19 cases. Many of these restrictions have caused people of all ages to make small and large sacrifices in many aspects of their lives.

Fortunately, a good number of activities and other suggestions were put together by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C) to help sustain our own mental health conditions. Many of these suggestions also have the potential of helping other people who desperately seek additional support and care.

Below are a couple of these helpful tips and suggestions:

Social Media

Regarding what is going on in the world with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become pretty rare to find much positivity across the major social media platforms. Because of this, you can make a change by promoting and sharing positive and uplifting content to bring hope and happiness to other people. Correcting what you know to be misinformation can also be beneficial.

Keep Up With Daily Routines

Many benefits are enjoyed when daily routines are kept, especially during unique circumstances like this. If there have not been any consistent routines that have ever been established, it is a great time to start. Making new and improved tasks and activities is also encouraged during times like these.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse

First and foremost, the amount of alcohol that is consumed should already have limitations because of the possibility of addiction or other harmful habits forming. Times like this that we are living in may cause people to think that it is an ideal time to start driving, but that could not be any further from accurate. The World Health Organization (W.H.O) has stated that you should never begin drinking alcohol or using drugs in an attempt to deal with anxiety, depression, fear, or social isolation.

You should also always remain aware of how the use of drugs and alcohol is known to prevent you from taking many of the necessary steps and precautions needed to protect yourself against infections and illnesses such as COVID-19.

Maintaining Social Contact and Interactions

Suppose you are residing in one of the many areas of the country that have different restrictions. In that case, it is crucial for you to maintain your contact regularly with close friends and family members to keep those relationships strong and healthy. This communication is most commonly done over the phone, but in today's day and age, there are many other online channels and platforms that can be used.

Cut Back or Eliminate Newsfeeds

With the amount of misleading information and general negativity out in society today, significant reductions in the amount of news you watch, read, and listen to will wonders the amount of distressed and anxious feelings produced. Mental health professionals suggest that you seek only the latest information only once or twice a day if needed to cut back on the overwhelming amount of toxic information.

COVID-19 and Mental Health