Coping with COVID-19

A global pandemic has taken over the world. Life has been stopped; everyone is suffering either physically, emotionally, or mentally. COVID-19 has not just affected people for now but for the future as well. Lots of people have lost their jobs, business, and family members.

Apart from this, mental health is a huge risk, as people are scared that they might contract the disease. Stress level, irritability, and anxiety is quite high because of quarantine and not being able to go out or meet friends. The ones who have already contracted it are at the peak of emotional outburst, the stress level is pretty high. Sufferers have fear of dying and are frightened of not gaining back the sense of smell and taste. Moreover, during this hard time, they have to stay alone and isolated and fight with it all alone. People abstain from them; even their own family members have to stay away.

As we all know, it is very vital for Corona patients and all of us to have good immunity to fight the virus. But the stress has impacted the immunity of sufferers very severely. There are some psychological techniques through which the sufferers could relax and calm their stress down.

1)      Use of Laughter therapy

As there is a famous quote that “Laughter is the best medicine”. Laughter could actually decrease the stress hormones, such as Cortisol and helps in increasing the immunity and antibodies that can possibly fight the disease. When we laugh, endorphin and serotonin are released that elevate mood and give positive feelings. Laughter therapy relaxes the muscle and eases tension in the body. One can easily find tutorials from YouTube and practice it all by themselves.

The issue is how one can laugh in a situation like this, all we have to do is to trick our mind, since, the brain cannot distinguish between real and fake laughs. So the fake laugh can give as much benefit as the real ones.

2)      Join the community where other sufferers or survivors are present

There is a page on Instagram named as “@warriors.covid” created by a survivor of COVID-19. On pages or groups like these, sufferer and survivors share their stories. It solaces patients that there are other people going through the same situations that they have been facing. It gives them hope that this is not the end, as other people have survived over it, so can them.

3)      Meditation

It has been scientifically proven that meditation can restructure your brain and strengthen one’s ability to battle strong emotions. Then again different videos about meditation could be found on YouTube. Daily meditation for 10 to 20 minutes is very beneficial for calming the mind.

4)      Stay in contact via call

The sufferer should be in continuous contact with friends and family via cell phone. Don’t isolate yourself by not talking to anyone; be in touch with as many friends as possible. Since you might be quarantined in a room keep doing video calls to your family members.

5)      Find some activities to keep yourself busy

You have all this free time that you are using to overthink and stress things out instead use this time to do feasible activities. It could be drawing, painting, watching series or some movies.

6)      Be close to religion

Because of fear of dying there comes the fear of the afterlife and fear of unknown. So be as close as you can with your religion. Read your religious books. Start praying as offering prayer is a kind meditation too. 

7)      Seek professional help

If you still cannot overcome stress contact online certified psychologists that are doing virtual sessions and therapies. There are several pages on Instagram where you can find good Clinical psychologists giving online therapies and counseling named “@life.of.a.psychologist”,  “@the holistic psychologist” etc. After all professional help is always useful.

This is a hard time for all of us we should try to take as many precautionary measures as we can. Stay home and don’t go outside until something really necessary comes up. With the measures that we have been taking for the wellness of our physical health, we should not forget the well being of our mental health. Try to be kind to everyone and help each other.

                                                     STAY HOME STAY SAFE