Mental health during lockdown

I have not met anyone who is not feeling angry and frustrated at the moment. For many of us, it has been the most difficult year of our life and it has been totally out of our control. Our mental health is our 4th pillar of wellbeing and I wanted to ask how you are feeling?

Our mental health is described as the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. When we have good mental health, we can think, feel and react in ways that we want to live. But if we experience poor mental health, the way we live our lives becomes difficult or even impossible to cope with. Mental health issues range from depression, anxiety and stress to rare conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

This year, I am sure that four emotions we have all been feeling at some time are stress, anxiety, depression and anger.

Stress is defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances, so it is no surprise that many of us are feeling stressed this year. It can be a physical, mental or emotional strain. Someone or something may be causing stress or worry. It may be a person who is driving you crazy, a deadline, an exam, an important decision, infertility or an unwanted pregnancy. When we are stressed, we know what is causing the stress. Covid has certainly caused stress.

Anxiety is different to stress. Anxiety comes from a place of fear, nervousness and worry, which can also be high during 2020. With stress, you know what you are stressed about, but with anxiety, you do not. Anxiety includes: separation anxiety; panic disorder; generalized anxiety where you worry about everything; obsessive-compulsive disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder; health anxiety; social anxiety; and phobias.

There are several types of depression which include: mild depression when it has a limited negative effect on your daily life; major depression interferes with most aspects of an individual’s daily life including eating, sleeping and everyday routine activities; and post-natal depression, which can leave new mothers feeling completely overwhelmed, inadequate and unable to cope.

Anger is a normal emotion, caused by frustration, stress, anxiety and learnt behaviour. This year, I have been very angry and this is unusual for me. And I would say that this is the emotion I am seeing most in others. Being angry is not good for your mental or physical wellbeing and it needs to be properly channelled. If you are angry, you may also become: depressed; anxious; have insomnia; experience high blood pressure; increase your risk of heart attack; and suffer with headaches and digestive problems.

I have realised that this year there are four reasons I am feeling all of these emotions – in no particular order.

Social interaction – I am really missing people. I am a people person and they give me energy and motivation. I am someone who likes being with a lot of people, both socially and at work. And being a single parent, I am the only adult in my house so I am missing adult interaction.

Social life – this has stopped for all of us. I am a huge fan of the arts and go to the theatre, movies or live music almost weekly. Dinner with friends, out for a drink, and parties have obviously all stopped. I run a monthly woman’s group which has had to stop. We have kept going with a weekly film club but we are missing our sense of community and friendship.

Work – chances are the way you work has changed. There are some who have been furloughed, some made redundant, some who have lost their jobs or companies. I cannot imagine how this must be for people in these situations and the future is not looking good. For those lucky enough to still be working, there is a very high chance that your job is not the same. For me, the two parts I really love about my job are teaching and conferences and both are now virtual. Every day I sit in my house talking to my computer screen. It has been soul destroying but I have to remember that I am one of the lucky ones. I am sure that many jobs will never be the same again.

Holiday – I have not had a holiday so I have not reset. Holidays are one of the main ways we take a break from our routine and it gives us time to reset and relax. I find this impossible to do at home. I had two very short breaks but neither gave me enough time to reset. And I cannot plan a holiday in the future so I do not have a holiday to look forward to.

Spending time on Zoom calls all day has many disadvantages. One of the main problems is the chit-chat that we would normally have with friends and work colleagues no longer happens. It may be a moan or praise about someone or an update of how things are in our life. This are rarely happening, so we are missing out on a huge part of each others lives.

Can I offer any solutions? I really think that the mindfulness course I did a few years ago has helped me. I am not thinking too far into the future at all, and taking each day as it comes. Regular walks with friends and work colleagues are really important. Especially for those working at home who might go all week without leaving the house.  I have not seem most of my work friends since March but we are planning a walk in December. We should have done this before. The sports centres are opening and it is important to keep up regular exercise for our mental and physical health. And hopefully we have a bit more time to plan our meals and take control of our alcohol consumption. Since we are in most evenings, hopefully we can sleep better and not have to use the alarm clock to wake up. I would also recommend spending time decluttering our homes. Especially before Christmas when usually a lot more things end up coming into the house. Is there a list of jobs that need doing in the house – why not get them done before the end of the year.

And now is the time to think about what your goals are for 2021. I always recommend doing a vision board in January, but reflecting about the previous year and thinking about your goals in December. I do one for home and one for work. For 2020 my home board had two key aims were tranquility and dancing. I just about managed to tick both. And for work they were simplicity and impact. I also think I managed both of them. It might be really hard to think about goals during lockdown, and I have said to not look too far into the future, but I think the two can work together.  We have to be a bit more imaginative.

When you go for a walk – look around at the beautiful country we live in and try to reset. Having a positive outlook is hard at the moment but it is really important.