Managing COVID 19 Anxiety

​Anxiety has been the most widespread mental health issue in the UK for some years but it’s not surprising that everyone is experiencing it now that COVID19 has reached us. Information about this virus is emerging all the time, no one is an expert on it and experts on viral spread are in disagreement about how best to deal with it, so we just have to manage our own and each other’s anxiety as best we can. Here are some ideas based on the following principles:
 
Anxiety serves an evolutionary purpose
It alerts us to threats and gives us some tools to deal with them. If you’re an early hominid living on the Savannah or a modern human walking through town at night you need to be aware of predators and to be able to run or fight. Anxiety keeps you alert and offers adrenalin to aid you in dealing with immediate problems.
 
Anxiety limits the ability to make good decisions
People who bulk buy soap are preventing others from taking reasonable precautions and so increase their own likelihood of getting the virus. If you continue to come into work when you don’t have to you’re exposing your family, friends and everyone you come within 2m of to the virus.  Anxiety causes over and underthinking.
 
Chronic anxiety becomes self-fulfilling
Worry becomes focus – we’re all doing that with COVID 19 – and our natural cognitive bias leads us to focus on what we expect. Anxiety becomes persistent, then intrusive, then disruptive.
 
Long term anxiety has serious consequences
For your general health and in particular for your immune system. 
 
Anxiety is a public health issue
It's caused stockpiling - of toilet paper! People are fist fighting in supermarket isles, queue's are getting testy, well off people are consuming vast amounts of preservable food, too many retailers are price gouging, poorer people can't get enough provisions for 2 weeks isolation and foodbank donations have plummeted. Anxiety leads to fear which very early on emerged as xenophobia, and can create panic, especially in vulnerable groups who are already living on the margins. Suicide rates are high and young people as a group were expressing a great deal of stress before C19. 

Here are some things you can do today
 
Change your social media use
It’s unreasonable to suggest that we stop using social media since it’s where the majority of us get our information about everything from, but we can consciously alter what we see and how often.
 
Consider muting words on twitter
https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/advanced-twitter-mute-options
 
Snooze unhelpful accounts on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/help/538433456491590
 
Mute unhelpful stories on Instagram
https://help.instagram.com/290238234687437

Add accounts that you find soothing.
If you find conspiracy-led accounts soothing – many of us do because everyone likes to be told they’re right – try seeking something neutral, like cooking, decorating, art, Lego, anything that doesn’t tell you that They have a plan.
 
The Dodo always has happy endings and other nature-based accounts can be useful.

Learn something new
TED, podcasts and books are obvious replacements. Also take a look at free online courses
Future Learn
https://www.futurelearn.com/
 
Stanford
https://online.stanford.edu/
 
And many other universities
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
 
 
Think about rationing social media
and certainly your use of computers, phones and tablets, particularly in the evening.
 
Move!
Gyms may not be the best places to be right now but exercise helps sleep, cognition, and has a measurable positive impact on anxiety. Walk to the shops, get off the bus one stop before you need to, take the stairs, walk faster, extend what you normally do with your body. The NHS offers whole sets of free Pilates and other core strength videos for everyone, including elderly people.
 
 
Develop your human connections
We are social animals and don’t do well on our own. Speaking as a dedicated introvert I know that if I don’t speak to other human beings at least once a day life can take on a less realistic hue. Turn your attention to people you care for, ask what kind of care they’d like from you and let them know what kind of care you’d like from them. Talk to your neighbours. Make friendly eye contact – yes, it is possible in London – especially with people working in shops, bus drivers and other people in public service who cannot wash their hands as often as they might want to and are exposed to C19 in ways that most of us are not.
 
Do Good.
Being useful helps with all kinds of emotional problems. It’s instinctive.
If all you can manage is to make friendly eye contact with an unknown human being today, do that. Altruism increases your sense of connection and belonging, offers a sense of purpose and, if done with no sense of martyrdom please, reduces anxiety. If you can really follow through with an offer to shop for someone who will find it difficult, do that. Don’t offer if you can’t do it because the guilt you’ll feel isn’t worth it. You don’t have to be Mother Theresa to put some quality food, soap, washing up liquid, nappies or sanitary towels in the supermarket food bank box or the online order option. Pat a dog, stroke a cat,  send a thank you card to your GP, take muffins to A&E, do what makes someone else feel warmer.

Rest
Few of us get enough rest. Now is the time to prioritise it. Tired people are anxious. Don’t go out in the evenings, don’t invite large numbers of people round, who cares if the ironing isn’t done? If, as many workers know all too well, your boss is unreasonable, really focus on whether it’s worth working under someone who is so unskilled. Life is short. Be careful who you let determine how you live it.
 
Mindfulness – meh. Meditation, yes, even if that’s sitting in silence with your eyes shut and listening to a clock tick 60 times. “Don’t get caught up in the how — just do.”​
 

Anxiety is a reality at present, we’re going to have to live with it for a while. COVID 19 can help us prioritise how we live, the kinds of people we want around us and the kind of person we want to be.

​If not now, when?