Covid Stress
Since April 2020, the pandemic has wreaked havoc across the nation, which is indeed posing a lot of challenges. There are continuous feelings of stress, uncertainty, fear, and anxiety around us and our loved ones, which are impacting our interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. These difficulties lead to psychological, behavioural, social, and emotional difficulties overtly represented in the form of anger, frustration, and major psychological issues like anxiety, fear, insomnia, stress, and depression.
With coming of COVID-19, and its respective restrictions such as social distancing, quarantining, and series of lockdown, has increased the levels of stress amongst the people. With respect to recent data, 74% of Indians are suffering from stress due to the pandemic. This gives us an understanding of stress, its respective signs and symptoms, and the ways to deal with it effectively.
Stress can be understood as a change that takes place within ourselves or our environment which makes it difficult for an individual to cope with the respective needs and demands. Though a little stress can bring a positive impact and make an individual motivated to work towards the goal, prolonged stress affects the individual both physically and psychologically.
Signs that you are going through psychological stress: -
Physical Symptoms: -
· Frequent headaches
· Loss of appetite
· Diarrhea or constipation
· Rapid increase in the heart rate
· Cold and flu
Psychological Symptoms: -
· Inability to concentrate
· Frequent episodes of forgetting
· Constant worrying
· Fluctuation in mood
· Feelings of loneliness and isolation from loved ones
· Worrisome
· Negative view towards self
· Change in the sleeping patterns of an individual
· Procrastination or neglecting one's roles and responsibilities.
It is important that we gain an understanding of these symptoms and be vigilant in case any of our near and dear ones, including ourselves, are suffering from these symptoms. Then we can follow these instructions as an emotional first aid to help ourselves or our loved ones.
· Identifying the stressors for gaining an insight into the main area of concern. This helps us to understand that from where we are getting the stress and gives us an understanding as to what all situations one can avoid.
· Practice the 4 A’s: - In your daily lives start using the 4 A’s that are Avoid, Alter, Adapt and Accept. Although avoiding could seem like a negative coping mechanism. However, sometimes it becomes important to avoid some stressors in our lives. Alter refers to altering our perception of the situation. Adapt refers to adapting to the new change be it at our home or at our workplace to maintain peace within ourselves. Accept refers to accepting the presence of stress and working on it.
· Digital Detox: A major of stress is also the news which one hears throughout the day about COVID- 19, where some sources are misleading. These situations increase our levels of stress. Hence, it becomes important for us to listen to the news once a day from a reliable source to eliminate the stress.
· Engage in self-care: It is human nature that we put ourselves on the back burner. We always forget to take care and pamper ourselves. Take the opportunity, and engage in emotional and psychological self-care, and embrace yourself.
· Try various creative activities: We always want to engage ourselves in various hobbies or creative activities. Take this time as an opportunity to be creative and try various activities.
· Reflection and mindfulness for getting in touch with our emotional upheavals and getting a solution for them.
It is important that we take good care of our mental health. The covid-19 has come with important learning that both body and mind are essential ingredients in our lives and taking good care of these two makes an individually healthy. Furthermore, just the way we do not hesitate to consult a doctor when physically ill, we should not hesitate to consult a psychologist when we are emotionally and psychologically low.
About the author -
Counselling Psychologist Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope, a unit of Dr. Bakshi’s Healthcare, offers mental health support to individuals across age groups through a gifted team of clinical and counselling psychologists.
