In the current environment, there is an overwhelming amount of advice on how to protect ourselves from, and stop the spread of Coronavirus. Underneath this, there is also a huge impact on our mental health. As it is likely that this will continue for some time, it is also critical that we have ideas for mental health care, to support ourselves and those around to maintain good mental health.

As I have discussed in previous articles, anxiety is a purposeful feeling designed to protect us and ensure our survival. In the Coronavirus affected world we live in, it is also a useful emotion as it motivates us to take the necessary action to protect us, the ones close to us, and in fact our communities and nations. As someone listening to, and complying with, the advice from my country’s government, I encourage you to do the same. For those of you already directly impacted by the virus I offer my condolences and compassion.

The mental health challenge

Psychologically though things get a little more complicated. Anxiety can generalise, and in this current environment, it can also transition into a state of despair triggering levels of depressive symptoms. From a mental health perspective these survival orientated strategies could be categorized as “fight-flight” and “shutdown”. The fight-flight strategies increase body stress levels, increase worrying and for some can move into panic. The shutdown strategies result in a lack of enjoyment in life, withdrawing from people and things, and reductions in sleep and appetite. For some there may also be other direct physical symptoms.

Whilst these strategies are survival orientated from an evolutionary perspective, they are not useful in terms of either our mental or physical health. In fact the more these strategies take hold, the less able we are to access our higher level functions from which we access some of the more useful coping strategies.

Some ideas…

With that in mind, below are some of the coping strategies that might help. I appreciate we are all individuals, so pick the strategies that resonate most with you. For each of these I have provided a link to a previous article which provides more details and a practical exercise.

Practice self-compassion as a way of allowing your internal feelings to be felt and processed. Often when we don’t do this the emotion intensifies and can result in physical symptoms, or less useful behaviours (addictions, acting out etc).

Using attention control to avoid being overwhelmed by a current feeling. This is an alternative to the previous strategy and is designed to increase our ability to shift attention when it is in our interest to do so.

Increasing your mental flexibility to gain an awareness of your internal thoughts and feelings. This puts you in a better position to be able to recognise thoughts that aren’t supportive of you and reduce their impact.

Cognitive reappraisal is a high level brain function. It enables us to reassess the situation and potentially our response. In the case of coronavirus, it may be about the possibility of a reduction in intensity.

Self- affirmation is focusing on one’s strengths and / or focusing on values important to you. This is a protective strategy and increases your ability to implement the previous strategies.

Finally, increasing our skills to demonstrate empathy to others. We may feel empathy, but how do we express it to other in our communications. Empathy from a neuroscience perspective has benefits to the giver and the receiver as emotional regulation is facilitated in these interchanges. We are designed for and need positive interactions and they have biological benefits.

In finishing

We do live in a time that can trigger our deepest level of survival anxiety. Please consider the strategies above. If you find them useful share them. Often in explaining something to someone we gain deeper insight into it. Also, if your symptoms are causing you significant distress and / or lack of functioning, please reach out to a mental health service in your area. Many of these are now available online or by phone to ensure their accessibility.

Take care

Scott