Mental Health Wellness Tips for Quarantine - Part 3
17. Find something you can control, and control the heck out of it.
In moments of significant uncertainty and overwhelm, control your little corner of the world. Organize your bookshelf, purge your closet, put together that furniture, group your toys. It helps to anchor and ground us when the more important things are chaotic.
18. Find a long-term project to dive in.
Now is the time to learn how to play the keyboard, put together a huge jigsaw puzzle, start a 15 hour game of risk, paint a picture, read the Harry Potter series, binge watch an 8-season show, crochet a blanket, solve a Rubix cube, or develop a new town in Animal Crossing. Find something that will keep you busy, distracted, and engaged in taking breaks from what is going on in the outside world.
19. Engage in repetitive movements and left-right movements.
Research has shown: Repetitive movement (knitting, coloring, painting, clay sculpting, jump roping, etc.), especially left-right movement (running, drumming, skating, hopping), can be effective at self-soothing and maintaining self-regulation in moments of distress.
20. Find an expressive art and go for it.
Our emotional brain is very receptive to the creative arts, and it is a direct portal for the release of feeling. Find something that is creative (sculpting, drawing, dancing, music, singing, playing) and give it all. See how relieved you can feel. It is a very effective way of helping kids to emote and communicate as well!
21. Find lightness and humor in each day.
There is a lot to be worried about, and with good reason. Counter-balance this heaviness with something funny each day: cat videos on YouTube, a stand-up show on Netflix, a funny movie—we all need a little comedic relief in our day, every day.
22. Reach out for help—your team is there for you.
If you have a therapist or psychiatrist, they are available to you, even at a distance. Keep up your medications and your therapy sessions the best you can. If you are having difficulty coping, seek out help for the first time. There are mental health people ready to help you through this crisis. Your children’s teachers and related service providers will do anything within their power to help, especially for those parents tasked with the difficult task of being a whole treatment team to their child with unique challenges. Seek support groups of fellow home-schoolers, parents, and neighbors to feel connected. There is help and support out there, any time of the day—although we are physically distant, we can always connect virtually.
23. “Chunk” your quarantine, take it moment by moment.
We have no road map for this. We don’t know what this will look like in 1 day, one week, or one month from now. Often, when I work with patients who have anxiety around overwhelming issues, I suggest that they engage in a strategy called “chunking”—focusing on whatever bite-sized piece of a challenge that feels manageable. Whether that be 5 minutes, a day, or a week at a time—find what feels doable for you, and set a timestamp for how far ahead in the future you will let yourself worry. Take each chunk one at a time, and move through stress in pieces.
24. Remind yourself daily that this is temporary.
It seems in the midst of this quarantine that it will never end. It is terrifying to think of the road stretching ahead of us. Please take time to remind yourself that although this is very scary and difficult, and will go on for an undetermined amount of time, it is a season of life and it will pass. We will return to feeling free, safe, busy, and connected in the days ahead.
25. Find the lesson.
This whole crisis can seem sad, senseless, and at times, avoidable. When psychologists work with trauma, a key feature to helping someone work through said trauma is to help them find their agency, the potential positive outcomes they can effect, the meaning and construction that can come out of destruction. What can each of us learn here, in big and small ways, from this crisis? What needs to change in ourselves, our homes, our communities, our nation, and our world?
-Victoria Ackerman Dr. Eileen Feliciano, a doctoral-level Psychologist in NYS with a Psy.D. in the specialties of School and Clinical Psychology.
Date stamp is: March 23, 2020
From the bottom of my heart
Elke
Photo: Pexels-selective-focus-photography-of-paintbrush
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Text: Victoria Ackerman Dr. Eileen Feliciano, a doctoral level
Psychologist in NYS with a Psy.D. in the specialties of
School and Clinical Psychology.