If at the idea of returning to your daily activities after the quarantine or isolation that we have lived as a society due to the coronavirus you have been experiencing depression or anxiety, then we are going to share several recommendations so that you feel better about it.
The New Normal
Currently, society is going through a fear of coming out of isolation, returning to the streets, to the office, and retaking this new normal. Several things may be causing us concern, for example, seeing so much protection in people, feeling isolated despite being surrounded by people when you go to the supermarket, etc., and perceive how these measures generate discomfort.
We need to go stage by stage to regain confidence. We have gone through a period where we have been afraid of living with the people around us.
Our children or friends have become a point of threat, where the solution was “we are going to completely isolate ourselves from people to feel safe”, and now returning and being next to people can make us feel that we are in danger, and that is a distortion, that is not correct, because not all the people you see out there is a source of contagion.
We have to remember that contagion occurs through contact with saliva and mucus.
How to Combat Depression and Anxiety?
- As an exercise, remember three scenes, three moments of your life from your past where you were surrounded by many people and you felt safe and secure, and even where you felt relaxed, enjoying, laughing, at a concert, a meeting of friends, birthdays or in the middle of your office with many people.
This is to tell your brain that you remember those moments and register those
sensations in your body.
- Now imagine three moments in the future being surrounded by many people and feeling good, although depression and anxiety suddenly begin to appear. At this point it is recommended to let go, relax your stomach, breathe and wait for your body to expand, and to reconnect with the feeling of security being in the midst of many people.
- There is a point that can help you and that is that the immune system is strengthened through contact with other people, with other bacteria and viruses. The immune system, in a place of total hygiene and isolation, enters a state of rest. The immune system is your defence system that works best when exposed to different viruses and bacteria, as you have all your life.
- People with anxiety have perhaps developed a phobia of germs or being exposed to the outside and that is already a distortion of our brain. It is a state that is not functional, we cannot maintain it for long, and it is not focused on our survival.
- If you want to survive and be well, it will be important to resume activities, contact and go out little by little, doing it accompanied by a positive attitude. Know that it is going to be a gradual exposure.
- If possible, begin to imagine what this exposure will be like in contact with other people. Do not demand to do it overnight 100%. Keep in mind that these are stages of readjustment until we feel comfortable and confident.
- You can make a priority plan and expose yourself to this situation and see for yourself the return of confidence.
- We need to know that what we have experienced was a peak, an outbreak and that is why the measures that were taken were taken, but eventually, this virus will become part of all the others that surround us. Our attention will return to normal, but as a society, we are slowly regaining that confidence.
- Finally, record on a sheet all your thoughts, for example, the fact of going back to the new normal, why fears, what images, what ideas, and of each of those thoughts, how real or objective they are.
Check if they are not distorted, debate about them, record if they are real or imaginary and fantasy, and keep in mind that these types of thoughts are very likely anticipatory anxiety and not a reality.
Summary
Do not pressure yourself, do not demand perfectionism, you need to process what you have lived.
There are post-traumatic stress exercises that can help you to put this whole situation in its place within your story and define how you want to live this moment of reintegration into society.
You can have a therapeutic massage in a physical center, which is said to help you feel more relaxed and act as an alternative to anxiety drugs. Check out MiracleRehabClinic.com and get informed on how you can access their massage service.
The most important thing is always to remember that you are not alone.
