Have you been worrying a lot about your family or finding it hard to take a break from the news? A psychologist tells you how to deal with these 5 signs of pandemic-related anxiety.
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00:00That is a pretty valid fear, especially if you have gotten infected and you have parents
00:09living in your house.
00:10So what I will tell you is that think about it if you want, but don't think about something
00:14that is in the future or that might happen.
00:18Think about the present and what's happening now.
00:20A quick tip to stay in the present and not worry too much about the future is that every
00:24time you catch yourself overthinking about the future or what might happen, try to take
00:29a deep breath and focus on it.
00:31I know this sounds really boring and everyone tells you to meditate and stuff, but it actually
00:35works.
00:36Physiologically, your brain is told that we can relax and we can breathe, and that's when
00:41it tries to stop feeling anxious, feeling restless all the time, extremely tense jaw
00:51and forehead, having random aches all over your body without understanding why, and also
00:56feeling extremely tired all the time, like you're not able to get out of bed or do things
01:00that you normally can do.
01:02Mental problems have an effect on our physical health and also physical problems have an
01:06effect on our mental health.
01:07Unfortunately, we can't just call up our brain and be like, stop being irritating.
01:11And instead, we have to tell our brain in some other way.
01:14And that way is to do progressive muscular relaxation.
01:18It sounds intense again, but it's really simple.
01:20All you have to do is pay attention to different parts of your body one by one, like, for example,
01:24right now, try to pay attention to your forehead and notice how tense it is and relax it.
01:31Then pay attention to your jaw.
01:32I'm sure that's really tense.
01:34We actually do this all the time without realizing it.
01:37So try to relax that and pay attention to every part of your body, like from head to
01:41toe, and relax it one by one.
01:43A lot of my clients have been telling me that they keep looking at the number of cases incessantly
01:52and try to gain as much information as they can from watching the news.
01:56And I get why they do that.
01:58It's because we feel like we can't control the situation and we don't have enough information.
02:03And that can be quite uncomfortable considering how scary it is.
02:06All you have to do is try to stimulate your senses using pleasurable things or pleasant
02:12things like watching a nice, cute little video of a puppy or listening to really happy music
02:19or just doing anything that makes you feel good.
02:22It can be something really small, like eating something nice.
02:25The key is to avoid distressing media or triggering things.
02:29There's been a lot of cases about people washing their hands so much that they get extremely
02:38dry and they start bleeding.
02:40Now I know we have to wash our hands, but worrying about washing our hands, worrying
02:43about contamination the whole day, those are all signs that you're going a little overboard
02:48with it.
02:49So if you've been suffering from this, try and ask yourself this question.
02:52Are you washing your hands because you're anxious or is it because you actually went
02:56out and there's a real risk of catching it?
03:00A lot of people have been feeling extremely anxious and overthinking a lot to themselves
03:07and they don't share it with anyone because maybe they feel like they will burden the
03:10other people with their problems in this difficult time and nobody wants that.
03:14The first step is to tell someone about it.
03:16Talk about it.
03:17You're not alone and you're not a burden.
03:20I mean, I'm sure a lot of other people are also feeling like this and maybe they're not
03:24telling you because you're not telling them and maybe you both think that you won't understand.
03:29But that's not true, right?
03:30Talk about it.
03:31Acknowledge it.
03:32Even though it might be a little difficult to think about it, it might be painful, but
03:36if you don't think about it, it will just get worse.
03:39It will not get better and we want to get better, right?