Bored, Lonely, Anxious and LOCKED-DOWN!!

“Guys…Give me a genuine answer: Are you people not at all stepping outside your homes? Like, not at all meeting friends, making any social contact? Last time I stepped out of my house was on Monday, that too to buy bread only! I’m getting tired…I wonder how people survive in isolation and jails?”

I received this text on a WhatsApp group shared with my girls-gang and couldn’t help but wonder about the impact of current Corona Pandemic situation on mental health. While fever, dry cough and tiredness have been reported by the WHO as the common symptoms of COVID-19; we also need to become sensitive towards the by-producing mental health disturbance that has begun to thrive in the world-community whilst being hyper-vigilant to the indicators of this viral infection and restless in the times of lockdown. As can be seen in the quoted text, my friend reported “getting tired”—tiredness of mental nature stemming from being indoors for the last 7+ days and not the pathology of Corona.

The jitteriness and exasperation from being locked-down is evident from the last line that she typed out— ‘How do people survive in isolation and jails?’ Well, here is one of the answers provided in The Lancet Journal by psychologists: Quarantined people often show emotional disturbance, depression, stress, low mood, irritability, insomnia, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anger and emotional exhaustion. In fact, the stressors that precipitated these reactions were identified as longer quarantine duration, infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supplies, inadequate information, financial loss, and stigma. So yes, ‘survival in isolation’ is indeed marked by several psychological repercussions!

Unfortunately, mental health outcomes of being under a state-ordered lockdown are now closely mimicking the psychological effects of being selectively quarantined for suspected infection. One reason why I believe this to be happening is due to the “perceived” curtailment of INDIVIDUAL CHOICE common to both quarantine and lock-down situations. For instance, I personally am someone who would stay indoors for a week straight during college examination period. However, the minute I am “expected” to be homebound instead of “deciding” to do so, it makes me restless! Humans are social animals, of course—and in my opinion, we are pretty rebellious ones too! In line with this thought, if I were to tell you right now to NOT THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT, I am sure you would have first thought of it and then mentally erased the image. Well, I don’t blame you. The human brain is wired as such that it takes more time to comprehend the negatives used in a language. Similarly, since the government has announced, “You’re NOT allowed to leave your homes unless absolutely necessary”, our human brains are going to come to terms with this situation at its own pace. GIVE IT TIME!

Closely associated with the idea of lost personal choice is the Fear of the Unknown. No matter how “chilled” a person you are or how “adventurously” you would like to live your life, the unpredictability of the course of an illness like Corona is unpleasant. In an interview with the American Psychological Association (APA) about the Coronavirus Anxiety, Dr. Fischhoff (an expert in the area) pointed out that more people die of the seasonal flu on an annual basis than those who would die of the COVID-19. However, we panic over the possibility of contracting the Coronavirus because of the novelty involved in its evolution, course and outcome. Since active efforts by the scientists and governments has posed the seasonal flu as being a “common” threat, our minds have translated this into believing it to be a more combatable threat than the corona. Yes, a guaranteed antidote to the COVID-19 is yet to be discovered. However, does this imply that Corona is indefinitely going to leave us helpless? How many of us would confess being guilty of focusing on the rising number of cases in each country as opposed to the number of individuals who have actually been cured of the condition? Again, give it time, STAY HOPEFUL!

‘What do I do to deal with the boredom, loneliness and anxiety?’

Let’s try to establish the scientific significance of some of the tips offered by the University of WhatsApp, national governments, news agencies and b/vloggers by drawing connections with the above discussed literature.

1.  Practice Mindfulness: The discussion on Fear of the Unknown essentially implies that a lot of our anxiety is stemming from our unfruitful thinking about “What will happen next?” Let’s hit the pause button on that thought and all engage in this simple exercise:

Take a few deep breaths and promise to stay committed to this exercise. Instruct yourself: I will direct the focus of my mind. Now, list 5 things present in your environment that you can:

a.  See around yourself at the moment (e.g. books on the table, color of the walls, etc.).

b.  Hear around yourself at the moment (e.g. birds chirping, the rotating fan, etc.).

c. Feel on your body at the moment (e.g. hair on your neck, feet on the floor, etc.).

This simple exercise often forms a part of therapeutic programs targeting anxiety reduction. It will help you to ground yourself firmly in the present which is the need of this time when the future is unclear and worrying about it is not going to aid our mental health.

2.  Set a Routine: As mentioned earlier, curtailment of individual choice is only PERCEIVED. The choice of whether or not we can go outdoors is beyond us right now but the choice of how we handle our schedules irrespective of this one small glitch can help us obtain a sense of control and personal choice.

Some pointers to be kept in mind while setting up a routine are:

  a.    Set short term, measurable goals that can be achieved by the end of the day. Sit back, reflect and appreciate yourself to have achieved these small victories.
b.    We are stimulation-seeking creatures who get easily bored of relaxing and pursuing creative tasks too! The key then is to actively switch amongst the plethora of activities available to us on a timely basis. Draw mandalas for a while, switch to Netflix later, dig up the books you wished to read but never got the chance and of course, catch up on all that sleep you missed!
c.     Remember that ‘normalcy’ is our next door neighbour who is going to strike our doors once the current situation clears. Thus, don’t lose touch with your work, life and friends. Make the most of the technological era we live in to participate in the “WFH Culture”, video-calling the loved ones to satisfy the need for face-to-face interaction and exercising indoors using various Apps or YouTube videos to keep our bodies fresh.
d.    On a personal note, I would suggest to actively incorporate the task of sharing household duties into our daily routines such that our moms who often end up picking up the slack get a Corona induced-break-time too!

3.  Self-work and Professional Help: Consider this to be valuable time that you’ve laid your hands  on to explore and work through a few tough areas that you have been sweeping under the carpet repeatedly.

Some therapeutically valid self-work exercise sheets that are openly available for dealing with one’s disturbing thoughts are:

a.  A worksheet to help you become “un-stuck”: https://thiswayup.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Module-3-Thought-challenging.pdf

b. A worksheet to guide you through structured problem solving: https://thiswayup.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Module-3-Structured-Problem-Solving.pdf

c. A worksheet to reduce your tendency to worry: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/CCI/Consumer%20Modules/What%20Me%20Worry/What%20Me%20Worry%20-%2009%20-%20Accepting%20Uncertainty.pdf

Always remember that you are not alone, not even in these times of a lockdown! Many free telephonic counselling services have now opened up in India, especially to provide a pandemic support system. You can check with the websites of Trijog and ListenWorks to gather more information regarding the same. Feel free to also contact on the email-id mentioned on this blog page if you require further assistance in procuring mental health services or self-help material.

 4. Contribute: With several funds being opened up and circulated on the social media for contributing towards the well-being of those in need for a financial aid due to various reasons during this pandemic, a sense of social participation and human touch can be achieved. Many of us may not be in a position to make a monetary contribution and so what I find to be the most valuable contribution is the one that can be made towards the advancement of science and research. Many researchers have stepped forward and started online surveys for collecting data on the psychological, economic and societal impact of the Coronavirus. Such research will readily help professionals to take informed action based on public opinion and experiences in the aftermath of COVID-19. Links to 3 such studies are:

      a.  https://forms.gle/4rHGyDcz56imwUEW7

      b. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdBnvZ5U70Z13ckitZXGYQf66VRTSjnz7rslhImNYgmtggGA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

      c. https://www.pubgeek.co/clink/survey-covid-19-india/

I would like to end this blog with a few activities of dealing with the boredom, loneliness and anxiety in current times that have been yielded as being personally helpful by me and my close ones. For instance, the observance of Janata Curfew on 22^nd March 2020 and the variety of sounds that reverberated on the streets at 5 p.m. helped me personally feel our solidarity in these lonely times. Similarly, a friend mentioned eating her lunch by the window as being particularly helpful in “feeling fresh and in touch with the world.” Some have called the process of preparing the trending ‘dalgona coffee’ itself as being therapeutic. I invite all the readers to open a string of comments on this post, sharing their cups of happiness in this time of a complete shutdown of the world. WRITE AWAY!

References

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet.

Rawat, M. (2020). Coronavirus pandemic and mental health: How we can help people in quarantine. Retrieved 29 March 2020, from https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/coronavirus-outbreak-covid19-cases-quarantine-mental-health-1652639-2020-03-05

Smith, N., & Barrett, E. (2020). Coping with life in isolation and confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic | The Psychologist. Retrieved 29 March 2020, from https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/coping-life-isolation-and-confinement-during-covid-19-pandemic

Speaking of Psychology: Coronavirus Anxiety. (2020). Retrieved 29 March 2020, from https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/coronavirus-anxiety