COVID-Anxiety: Five Tips for Reemerging After Lockdown
Dr Amy Pollard shares tips for reemerging
We’ve all been through a lot over the last year, and it’s hardly surprising that with lockdown easing and the world finally opening up, many of us have mixed feelings.
Whilst the peak of the pandemic has passed and official rules have changed, the psychological challenges brought by COVID-19 are still very much with us. Researchers at London South Bank University and Kingston University have found that one in five people show signs of what they term “COVID-19 anxiety syndrome”, where we struggle to reintegrate back into daily life having spent so long in lockdown.
Human beings are remarkably resilient and our capacity to cope with challenges is as wide and rich as the lives we lead. But it’s often the case that adaptations we make to deal with a challenge become ‘maladaptations’ that start to cause more problems than they solve.
Whether we’ve been holding our breath when we pass strangers in the street; walking into the middle of the road to avoid them; constantly monitoring our bodies for signs of illness; or recoiling from even the idea of a hug, unravelling our COVID coping mechanisms will take some time.
Here are five tips for dealing with COVID anxiety as we reemerge from lockdown:
- Take baby steps
Set your own pace and don’t feel pressured to do more than you are ready for just because the rules have changed. Challenge yourself to take small steps. Gradually expose yourself to a small amount of whatever makes you anxious — notice that you survive the experience — and then build up confidence step-by-step.
For example, if you are feeling anxious about being on public transport you could start by just walking to the bus stop without getting on. On the next trip you could sit by an open window for just one stop. Then you could try two stops, and so on.
2. Spend time in nature
The pandemic has forced us to spend an unprecedented amount of time indoors, but going out for a walk, doing some gardening, or just ‘being’ in green space are well-established ways to help us feel more grounded. Being surrounded by the natural world can help soothe anxious thoughts racing in our heads, and take us literally down to earth.
The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week this year is “Nature”. Check out #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek for ideas on reconnecting with the natural world to boost your mental health.
3. Take a breath
One of the most important things that we can do to calm ourselves down is take a deep breath. But COVID has seen us doing the opposite — holding our breath as we pass close to strangers; afraid to inhale pathogens that might be in the air. As the risk of COVID recedes, it’s important to learn to breathe easily again.
Breathwork is at the core of many meditation and mindfulness practices. You could try a technique such as “square breathing”:
- Begin by slowly exhaling all of your air out.
- Then, gently inhale through your nose to a slow count of 4.
- Hold at the top of the breath for a count of 4.
- Then gently exhale through your mouth for a count of 4.
- At the bottom of the breath, pause and hold for the count of 4.
4. Touch with permission
As mammals, human beings have a primal need for physical touch. Our parasympathetic nervous system means that when we are hugged ourselves or give a hug to someone else, our blood pressure falls, adrenalin drops, endorphins and oxytocin are released — and we feel good. COVID forced us to disassociate from this instinctive ‘skin hunger’ and treat touching others or being touched as a physical threat.
Permission is the key to re-learning to touch and be touched. Ask others for their consent before you touch them, and tell others what kind of touch you are comfortable with yourself. Remember that you can ask for and give consent using body language, as well as with words.
5. Take part in #KindnessByPost
One of the biggest maladaptions we’ve been collectively left with from the pandemic is the belief that stranger always = danger. #KindnessByPost was established to help us rediscover the kindness of strangers, and remember that hope and kindness is out there. It works like a nationwide secret-santa postal exchange of kindness between strangers, you sign up for free at kindnessbypost.org to send a card or letter with a message of goodwill to someone you don’t know, and have someone allocated to send a card or letter to you. We’ve been running these exchanges here at the Mental Health Collective since 2019, and over 10,000 people have taken part so far.
After spending so long being wary of strangers, it can be a powerful experience to join in a movement for connection and hope. Offering a small gesture of kindness to others can set us on the road for being kinder to ourselves too, as we set off in this new chapter together.
Whatever the COVID rules are and however the ‘norms’ of the new normal shape up — in terms of our mental health, it’s our own habits that matter. As we notice which habits we want to hold onto and which ones are no longer serving us; we can treat ourselves with gentleness as we reemerge.
