Dealing with COVID-19 and its effect on your mental health?
BrainHubCPW; how we can help with the current situation involving Covid-19 (self isolating advice from gov.uk). With ever increasing numbers of people having to go into self-isolation, either for their own protection from the virus, or, because they are displaying symptoms this can be a highly anxious, lonely and depressive period. This can have a massive impact on our mental and emotional health. We all will suffer from loneliness at some stage of our life, be it a brief pang or more painful long term sensation. According to research once loneliness becomes onset and longer term it becomes difficult to treat, as people can get stuck in a circle of negative behaviour.
At this stage of the current situation we are hopefully looking at shorter term isolation for most, but if this time increases what can you do to try to ensure your mental and emotional health stay as healthy as possible?
- Keeping line of communication open
- Talk to people whether friends, family
- Use a befriending service which offers online or telephone support. A number of services in Cornwall can be found on the Care and Support in Cornwall website
- Or a number of online communities like Elefriends
- Ensuring that we get enough sleep
- Eating a healthy diet
- Avoiding drugs and alcohol
can all help ensure that we put ourselves in the best place to cope with this difficult period. Use of mindfulness techniques can also be used to help improve our own mental health. There are many free resources for these online including guided meditation on youtube. The following links provide a couple of options but it is worth finding the ones that work for you;
A short guided meditation for loneliness
A longer guided meditation for loneliness:
Mindfulness tasks for working with anxiety
Be Kind….
It is also imperative that those who are not lonely or in isolation take on some responsibility for ensuring that our friends, relatives and vulnerable members of society are ok. Taking time to ring someone, ask if they need anything from the shops and delivering these to them. Remember that if you are showing any symptoms you should also be in isolation and definitely have no contact with those that are vulnerable. Talking therapies like those we offer here at BrainHub CPW can also offer a way to understand your feelings and make the changes needed to break the fore mentioned circle that results in chronic loneliness, anxiety and depression.
How can we help?
Here at BrainHub CPW, we are taking every precaution we can to prevent ourselves and those around us from contracting Covid-19, but are also here to support those that feel they need it. We offer a home visit service which will continue to run for any households not showing symptoms of the virus as long as your counsellor is symptomatic free too. We also offer phone or online services. These can be accessed by those struggling with their mental and emotional health whilst isolated that are showing symptoms of the virus. Please get in touch on admin@brainhubcpw.com or phone Phil on 07379116533, or, Harriet on 07928781807 or via our website; www.brainhubcpw.com (where our fees are fully displayed) or our social media pages for more information on the services we offer or for advice on self-help. Finally, we like to pass on our best wishes to all those that are struggling at this difficult time with either physical, mental or emotional health. Please everyone take care and be kind to yourselves and those around you.
References:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_lonely_society_report.pdf
https://www.supportincornwall.org.uk
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance