Online Therapy & Self Help – Ways to Deal with Lockdown Anxiety

Online Therapy & Self Help – Ways to Deal with Lockdown Anxiety

Life in lockdown is certainly not easy even though there are some benefits — being able to spend more time with the family and less time commuting and on school runs, no rush to get out in the morning, more time to do things around the house, for example. There’s no doubt that lockdown can be emotionally and physically draining and I’ve heard so many people say that they’re struggling. I’m not surprised at all — I struggle with it too and some days are really hard.

It’s tough juggling everything that needs to be done with the added jobs that come with lockdown, such as homeschooling and working from home (for me, I’ve had to change my working hours completely to be able to share the home office and childcare with my husband), and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and become stressed.

Then it’s the actual anxiety that many of us experience because of the Coronavirus — the worry about catching it or our loved ones catching it. We go for family walks some days and often end up feeling more anxious afterwards if it’s been busy while we’ve been out as it’s so hard to do social distancing properly when some other people who are out don’t even seem to try.

How to Deal with Lockdown Anxiety | Self Help

We need to learn how to deal with these emotions and our anxiety and plan our lives better to potentially avoid feeling like this. Some of us might be able to deal with some of these issues ourselves by doing things that make us feel calmer and more relaxed.

Ideas that you can try yourself if you are feeling overwhelmed with the situation include:

• Decluttering your home. It sounds strange but a tidy home with less clutter makes most people feel much better and calmer. It’s worth a try and it’s especially important to keep your home nice now that you’re all spending more time at home.
• Taking time for yourself. Everyone needs to have a bit of time to themselves each day, whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour — it’s necessary. Take a bit of time for some self care like a hot bath or read a book and enjoy a cup of coffee in peace and quiet. Make sure your partner does the same and you will both feel more relaxed. This is true for children too — they also need to spend some time away from their siblings sometimes. They could watch an episode of their favourite program or read a book in their room for example.
• Planning your days. Plan your schedule to make sure you can easily fit in everything you need to do and a few things that you’d like to do. Don’t make your to-do list too long though as that will be stressful in itself.
• Avoiding anxiety-inducing situations. To avoid the walk scenario mentioned above, we try to do our family walks at odd times when there are not as many other people around. We might go after dinner when most people are either still having their dinner or are putting the kids to bed. Food shopping is another situation that causes us stress and anxiety so we do Click & Collect orders as rarely as we can to avoid this task.

More Help Needed? | Consider Professional Help

There’s no shame in asking for help when you need it and emotional problems like depression or anxiety often need help from a professional. You might wonder what therapy is like and how it would work during lockdown when we’re not allowed to go out for “unnecessary” reasons and have to stay far away from other people. Just like many other things, therapy can be done online too. For many of us, money is a bit tighter than usual and you might be wondering if you could even afford therapy. How much does therapy cost? It doesn’t have to be very expensive and online therapy can be much more affordable than seeing someone in-person.

There are many different types of therapy that work just as well online like family therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Even though paying for mental health services is something many people struggle to justify, it can be so helpful and a worthwhile investment in your health. If you’re struggling with your mental health during the lockdown or in general, definitely consider professional help. I can tell you from personal experience that it does really make a difference.

Hopefully it will not be too long before the lockdown is lifted and life goes back to normal. In the meantime, try to make the most of the situation and make sure you’re looking after yourself — physically, mentally and emotionally.

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