How To Deal With Pandemic Anxiety

Brut India

Have you been worrying a lot about your family or finding it hard to take a break from the news? A psychologist tells you how to deal with these 5 signs of pandemic-related anxiety.

Transcript

00:00That is a pretty valid fear, especially if you have gotten infected and you have parents

00:09living in your house.

00:10So what I will tell you is that think about it if you want, but don't think about something

00:14that is in the future or that might happen.

00:18Think about the present and what's happening now.

00:20A quick tip to stay in the present and not worry too much about the future is that every

00:24time you catch yourself overthinking about the future or what might happen, try to take

00:29a deep breath and focus on it.

00:31I know this sounds really boring and everyone tells you to meditate and stuff, but it actually

00:35works.

00:36Physiologically, your brain is told that we can relax and we can breathe, and that's when

00:41it tries to stop feeling anxious, feeling restless all the time, extremely tense jaw

00:51and forehead, having random aches all over your body without understanding why, and also

00:56feeling extremely tired all the time, like you're not able to get out of bed or do things

01:00that you normally can do.

01:02Mental problems have an effect on our physical health and also physical problems have an

01:06effect on our mental health.

01:07Unfortunately, we can't just call up our brain and be like, stop being irritating.

01:11And instead, we have to tell our brain in some other way.

01:14And that way is to do progressive muscular relaxation.

01:18It sounds intense again, but it's really simple.

01:20All you have to do is pay attention to different parts of your body one by one, like, for example,

01:24right now, try to pay attention to your forehead and notice how tense it is and relax it.

01:31Then pay attention to your jaw.

01:32I'm sure that's really tense.

01:34We actually do this all the time without realizing it.

01:37So try to relax that and pay attention to every part of your body, like from head to

01:41toe, and relax it one by one.

01:43A lot of my clients have been telling me that they keep looking at the number of cases incessantly

01:52and try to gain as much information as they can from watching the news.

01:56And I get why they do that.

01:58It's because we feel like we can't control the situation and we don't have enough information.

02:03And that can be quite uncomfortable considering how scary it is.

02:06All you have to do is try to stimulate your senses using pleasurable things or pleasant

02:12things like watching a nice, cute little video of a puppy or listening to really happy music

02:19or just doing anything that makes you feel good.

02:22It can be something really small, like eating something nice.

02:25The key is to avoid distressing media or triggering things.

02:29There's been a lot of cases about people washing their hands so much that they get extremely

02:38dry and they start bleeding.

02:40Now I know we have to wash our hands, but worrying about washing our hands, worrying

02:43about contamination the whole day, those are all signs that you're going a little overboard

02:48with it.

02:49So if you've been suffering from this, try and ask yourself this question.

02:52Are you washing your hands because you're anxious or is it because you actually went

02:56out and there's a real risk of catching it?

03:00A lot of people have been feeling extremely anxious and overthinking a lot to themselves

03:07and they don't share it with anyone because maybe they feel like they will burden the

03:10other people with their problems in this difficult time and nobody wants that.

03:14The first step is to tell someone about it.

03:16Talk about it.

03:17You're not alone and you're not a burden.

03:20I mean, I'm sure a lot of other people are also feeling like this and maybe they're not

03:24telling you because you're not telling them and maybe you both think that you won't understand.

03:29But that's not true, right?

03:30Talk about it.

03:31Acknowledge it.

03:32Even though it might be a little difficult to think about it, it might be painful, but

03:36if you don't think about it, it will just get worse.

03:39It will not get better and we want to get better, right?

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