Coping with Pandemic Anxiety by an Anxiety Therapist in Colchester, CT
/Coping with Pandemic Anxiety by an Anxiety Therapist in Colchester, CT
Coping with Pandemic Anxiety by an Anxiety Therapist in Colchester, CT
The pandemic has been going on for several months now and no one knows when it will end yet. You feel stressed, anxious, and even depressed at the thought of entering the fall and winter months with the pandemic still happening. You experienced adjusting to working from home and turning your home into a school for your children. With fall approaching, you feel stressed with making the decisions over sending your child back to school versus having them stay home for distance learning. Your mind races, your chest feels tight, and you are filled with worry. You find yourself being short with others when you do not mean to be. You try to relax, but it feels really difficult to do so. Here are some ways you can try to cope with pandemic anxiety right now:
1. Explore what you can control. While so much of 2020 has felt out of our control, remember there are ways you can take back some control of your life. Let go of the things you can not control. You can control what you eat, how much you exercise, who you turn to for support, and engaging in activity (that is Covid safe).
2. Limit news. While it is important to know what is going on in the world, it can also be completely overwhelming and anxiety producing. With access to the news 24/7, it can put you into fight or flight mood activating more anxiety symptoms. Watch or read enough news to stay safe and make educated decisions and then turn it off/close the paper. Know when it is too much for you.
3. Create structure to your day. It is really easy to feel paralyzed leaving you to just wing it. Creating structure in your day can reduce stress and anxiety. Try going to bed and waking up at similar times every day. Figure out around your work schedule when you can get some exercise in. Make time to decompress so that you can recharge for the next day.
4. Drink water. So often we do not drink enough water and walk around dehydrated which can impact emotional well-being making us more irritable.
5. Practice deep breathing. Ever feel stressed to the point that you feel like you were not breathing? That is because when stressed, people tend to take short, shallow breathes. This can tell the nervous system to activate anxiety symptoms as if danger is around the corner. Taking deep breathes is a way to slow down the anxiety symptoms and to tell the nervous system to tell the brain that we are safe.
These are challenging times. If you find it difficult to cope with pandemic anxiety, reaching out for counseling can be helpful. Currently, Azalea Counseling & Wellness, LLC is offering online counseling which you can participate in any where in CT. For more information on online therapy, click here. To read more on anxiety therapy, click here. Click here to learn more about panic attack treatment. Do you have questions about therapy? Click here to read the F.A.Q.s.
Call or email today, for a free 15-minute phone consultation to see if we are a good fit.
Azalea Counseling & Wellness, LLC provides adult individual counseling in Colchester, CT and it’s neighboring communities including Amston, Andover, Bozrah, Columbia, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Lyme, Hebron, Lebanon, Marlborough, Montville, Moodus, Portland, Salem, and Westchester.