5 Actions to Cope with Anxiety and Depression in a Post Pandemic Era
Many have lost loved ones or have experienced debilitating health issues as the result of COVID-19. The human cost has been great, but the social costs of the pandemic have been great and far-reaching too. While the direct human cost of COVID-19 is immense in terms of loss of life we should not ignore the very real and long-lasting psychological and social costs of this pandemic. Despite the challenges COVID presents, we can use psychological tools to cope with our post-pandemic reality.
The pandemic has brought about wave after wave of disruptions to the way we work and live. It has changed the way we work with more and more of us working virtually. Along with the changes to the way we work have been increased stress, burnout, job losses, and business failures.
Pandemics have a long tail, and with COVID-19 we will be living with the secondary, or the psychological and social impacts for years to come. Our collective trauma of this event is not likely to disappear in the rear-view mirror anytime soon. Instead, it will linger as we all try to assess the damage and figure out how to piece together a new normal.
This new normal will require us to develop psychological and cognitive skills to better cope. Before we can talk about solutions, we need to recognize the problem. We need to talk about the magnitude of the pandemic in our lives.
At this point in the pandemic, a collective fatigue has set in leaving many feeling depressed and anxious. Compounding these psychological effects of COVID is the added role of social media in amplifying negative news. It is easy to go down the social media rabbit hole and become even more anxious and depressed as a result of it.
A Canadian study of the psychological effects of the COVID pandemic on young adults in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry found,
“61% (of participants) reported experiencing symptoms of psychological distress related to depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); specifically, 43% reported anxiety-related symptoms, 33% reported depression-related symptoms, and 6% reported PTSD-related symptoms. Individuals with families in settings high risk for COVID-19 infection and individuals who received government aid with a reduction in income were 4.30-fold and 2.80-fold more likely, respectively, to experience symptoms of psychological distress. Visits to social media daily to hourly for COVID-19-related news resulted in a 3.24-fold increase in the likelihood of experiencing depression-related symptoms.”
Experiencing depressive symptoms is widespread throughout the entire population. Findings for older populations were similar to that of younger cohorts. Research from McMaster University, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging states,
“43% of adults aged 50 or older experienced moderate or high levels of depressive symptoms at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that level increased over time.
Loneliness was the most significant predictor of worsening depressive symptoms, with other pandemic-related stressors, such as family conflict, also increasing the odds.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on older adults, with groups of people who were already marginalized feeling a far greater negative impact,” said Parminder Raina, lead principal investigator of the CLSA.”
We are all experiencing collective grief and this grief is compounded by the very nature of pandemics. Mental Health America writes,
“During and after a large-scale disaster like COVID-19, there are a lot of factors that can interrupt the normal grieving process. The losses you’re grieving might be exacerbated by feelings of anger about having to work so tirelessly throughout the pandemic, or fear that it will happen all over again. These added stressors increase the risk of complicated or traumatic grief — grief that doesn’t go away and prevents you from returning to your typical life.”
COVID has resulted in wave after wave of grieving as we cope with new losses and post-COVID life. Losses include losses to our sense of safety and security. Collectively we need to be having real and honest conversations about mental health. Depression and anxiety aren’t going to magically disappear because COVID stops being a pandemic. Recovering from trauma takes time and patience.
Here are five actions you can take to cope with anxiety and depression before they take over your life:
1. Step out of the silence
Talk to people, and seek out support. Don’t suffer in silence. Recognize it’s okay not to be okay. Challenge the stigma about mental illness both from internal (your self-talk) and external sources (what others think or say).
2. Reach out for help
Lean into those relationships that are important to you. Seek out connection. Recognize that sometimes family and friends might be a good support network, and other times they may not. You might need to seek professional help from a counsellor, therapist, or psychologist. Recognize you need help and get it.
3. Create a routine
Many of us have been dislodged from our workplaces and our regular routines. Acknowledge the disruptions caused by COVID and be prepared for adjusting your routine to adjust to your new reality. Creating a new routine is a helpful tool in managing depressive and anxious symptoms. By focusing on tasks and creating a routine we can achieve two things, a focus for our attention and a sense of accomplishment. Be mindful that this isn’t a one-off, rather you may need to tweak and adjust your routine regularly.
4. Take care of yourself.
Get plenty of rest, eat well and get out and get active. Find a safe way to socialize and stay connected with friends and family — this is important. We get so much out of our connections with others. Seek out opportunities to stimulate the feel-good chemicals or hormones in your brain. These hormones oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins are triggered by exercise and positive social interactions. Seek out opportunities to get outdoors, get active, and socialize safely.
5. Be careful with drugs, alcohol, and social media.
Alcohol and drugs can lead to dependency issues and create really serious problems in your life. Pay attention to your social media consumption, this can create a whole host of issues and may very likely trigger anxiety and depressive symptoms as is the case with doomscrolling.
Social media can be addictive, it can produce dopamine rushes in users. Dopamine can in some cases drive addictive behaviours too. As I stated earlier dopamine is a feel-good chemical, we get from a variety of sources including eating delicious food, having sex, and during exercise. We can also get the dopamine rush from recreational drugs, gambling, and social media.
Conclusion
There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. As the COVID pandemic passes or becomes endemic the collective memory of life in the middle of the pandemic will fade, but very slowly. Chances are we will all fumble to adjust to new norms and challenges ahead.
In the post-pandemic phase, we are going to have to adjust and adapt to our new realities and that can be anxiety-provoking and open us up to a greater risk of depression. We need a remedy or actions we can take to cope with anxious and depressive symptoms we may face. The above five actions can help you cope with anxious and depressive emotions as you navigate uncertain waters ahead in a post-pandemic era.
