At the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak World Health Organization has declared it as a global pandemic. Thus, all of us have no choice but to quarantine ourselves at home. This might feel petrifying but plays a vital role in fighting covid-19 all together. Meanwhile, the lockdown can activate our emotions like anxiety, depression and stress. Minding our minds at this hour is very necessary for our well being.
Mental issues or disorders like anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is persisting during lockdown and people are finding it difficult to deal with it. We must therefore restrain the impact of lockdown on us both emotionally and physically.
In order to understand the trend we spoke to acquire more information regarding mental health issues we spoke to Psychiatrist Dr.Debanjan Banerjee associated with Bangalore based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS).
Speaking to News Sense, Dr Banerjee said, “there has been a hike in the number of people suffering from depression and anxiety amid lockdown and we have been dealing with 300 such cases everyday. There are majorly two groups of people one with previously existing mental issues and the other group who have lately started to build such emotions”.
Following are the 5 easy steps, we found affective to deal with the feeling of anxiety and depression.
1) Avoid following negative news constantly
The constant news about coronavirus can make you feel anxious and restless. This can harm your mental health and particularly people who already persists with feelings like anxiety and OCD. Sitting idle for days without work may lend you plenty of hours to obsess over negative thoughts. To prevent this you must keep yourself busy and read books and follow only useful and authentic news platforms.
2) Exercise/Meditation
Meditation reduces the signs of anxiety and stress. Waking up to meditation and not to your phone can bring good results. Meditation for 10 minutes in the beginning of your day can enhance self-awareness and make your mind more conscious. Home workout can also help to kill time and will help you to stay healthy.
3) Binge-watch your favorite shows or series
While we engage ourselves in activities that are enjoyable such as binge-watching, your brain produces dopamine. This chemical gives the body a natural, internal reward of pleasure that makes you engage and watch more of it. It helps you in relieving stress. It acts as a temporary escape from our day-to-day problems or things that affects our mental health. It is hard to engage in positive things and shut our minds in the present scenario, but we must go through this and learn to engage in other good stuff that can act as stress busters. A binge works well and can block our brains from constantly having negative thoughts or stress-related problems.
4) Be Creative
It is very important to explore the creative side us, we have found more time now to engage ourselves in creative exploration. Willingness to do something that you like, keeps your mind away from illness. It reduces stress, anxiety, and depression. It helps you to stay calm and composed. Creativity pursuits such as writing, painting, dancing simply as we love and enjoy doing them. It makes us feel joyful and happier. Creativity during lockdown can keep your mind healthy and manage negative emotions.
6) Stick to healthy eating and sleeping habits
Life in lockdown is disrupting our sleep routine. This can have a negative effect on our mental health. The unpredictable pandemic with sudden self-isolation the importance of sleep is falling apart. Proper sleep makes you feel fresh and enthusiastic. Sleep is very effective in the functioning of our body and especially our immune system. It also promotes a healthy lifestyle and helps beat mental illness.
Following are the few points that can help you sleep on time-
a) Do not take long naps during afternoon instead you can engage yourself in some productive work.
b) Keeping a healthy diet can promote good sleep.
c) Avoid using phone prior 1 hour before going to bed.
d) Set your schedule and routine.
e) Relax your mind before sleep.
Most importantly take care and love yourself.
