Tips to Help Manage Coronavirus Anxiety – Click here for a PowerPoint Presentation – Click here for a link to a video of the same
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It is not easy to stay calm when the news is full of bulletins about Coronavirus and it is sure to cause anxiety, so here’s a few bullet points to help you manage your stress:
- Don’t keep the
news on all day long – you want to keep up to date, but don’t keep checking and
reading the latest updates as this can become compulsive
- Try having a news
detox or allocating yourself a time limit for reading or watching news; if
you’re worried about missing something crucial, ask others to update you
- Try not to seek
constant reassurance as this only provides temporary relief as you become
increasingly reliant on reassurance, reinforcing anxiety
- Introduce a ban
on Googling symptoms – Google, message-boards and forums are not, and never
will be, a source of calm, especially when you are already anxious
- Use a Cognitive
Behavioural exercise by giving a persistent thought the courtroom treatment –
confront it with a rational counterstatement; so if your persistent thought is
something like “Everyone I love will die from this virus” you can counter it
with a factual statement such as “Actually, most people who get Coronavirus
will make a full recovery, and that’s assuming they will even catch it at all”
- Do some exercise,
even if it’s just star jumps or shaking your body parts; this will help get the
adrenaline out of your system and channel the anxiety elsewhere
- Breathing
exercises – use a strong smell, such as lavender oil, to ground you and bring
you back to reality
- Grounding
exercises – do something simple like bending over to touch your toes or sitting
on the floor for a while instead of on the sofa – change your usual habits
- Allocate yourself
a daily ‘worry period’ – give yourself 5 minutes each morning to worry to
your heart’s content – write it all down – then get on with your day
- Treat yourself to
something that will give you a boost without spending money – cook yourself
something nice, have a hot bath or listen to a song you love
- Remember that
this isn’t permanent; yes, it is a worrying time, and some of us may have loved
ones who are affected, but don’t jump to the worst-case scenario
- Above all, be kind to yourself, you’re doing great…