March 13, 2020
Strategies for coping with novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
By Nerina Garcia-Arcement, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Stress Management Expert
Staying calm is essential to our emotional well-being and maintaining a strong immune system. Below are examples of actions you can take to help manage the situation.
Social Support:
Practicing social distancing is recommended to reduce exposure to the virus. However, social distancing does not mean social isolation. Social support is soothing and healing. Knowing you are not alone is comforting and reduces stress. For example, you can:
· Lean on the people you live with.
· Call, Text, Facetime or Skype friends and loved ones.
· Speak to your therapist (or other medical professionals), religious leader or sponsor.
· Help others if you can. Altruism benefits both parties. Helping others refills your well of internal resources and makes you feel less helpless.
Calming the Mind:
Feeling things are out of our control makes us feel helpless and scared. This turns on our Fight, Flight, Freeze Response. Our body releases cortisol (stress hormone/adrenaline) to prepare us to survive a perceived threat. Your body is readying to protect you in the short term, but unfortunately your immune system, reasoning and problem solving is then impaired.
Getting facts will help offset this reaction. Go to reputable and trusted websites for more information such as:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/index.html
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
You can also offset this reaction by focusing on what you can control. You can do the following:
· Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water, cough/sneeze into your elbow or a tissue and don’t touch your face.
· If you can work from home, stay home or limit your physical contact with co-workers.
· Practice social distancing behaviors.
· If you don’t feel well, stay home.
· Buy enough supplies to last 14 days in case you or a loved one needs to be quarantined.
· Make sure you have activities to entertain yourself at home, such as movies/shows, books, art supplies/coloring books, games, cards and puzzles.
· Watch videos of joyful moments. Videos of puppies, kittens, children or personal vacations. These will trigger positive memories and the emotions associated with them.
Monitor your negative thoughts and assumptions or catastrophic thinking. Negative thoughts lead to negative emotions and activate the Fight, Flight, Freeze Response. To monitor and control your thoughts answer these questions.
· What are your interpretations, thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions about this event or stressor?
· Are these beliefs or thoughts reasonable and how likely are they to happen?
· If you are assuming a threat, what consequences or outcomes are you anticipating?
· What's the worst thing that could happen in this situation given what you know to be true?
· If the worst happened, how would you cope? What would you do?
Practice mindfulness. Focus on what you are doing in the moment. Being mindful during an activity stops your negative and worried thinking.
· Mindful practices include: knitting, puzzles, art projects, crafts, playing cards/video games, wash dishes, chop vegetables and cook.
Calming the Body:
You have to communicate to your body that you are not in imminent danger to turn off your Fight, Flight, Freeze Response. Remember, this is an evolutionary response that might be misguided in the moment. There is no lion in the room ready to pounce. The Fight, Flight, Freeze Response activates the respiratory and cardio-vascular system and deactivates your digestive system. Try the following:
· Practice deep breathing, meditate, stretch your muscles or practice yoga.
· Exercise, this releases endorphins (stress and pain relief).
· Drink water, it reactivates your digestive system.
· Laughter is healing and releases endorphins and decreases cortisol. Watch comedy shows and movies.
· Give yourself a hug.
· Skin to skin contact releases oxytocin (bonding hormone that reduces stress and lowers blood pressure). Put your right hand over your heart (skin to skin) and your left hand over your stomach.
· Get as much sleep as possible. This helps keep your immune system strong and your mind sharp.