Coronavirus can stir up all sorts of feelings. Like fear, anxiety or stress. A little stress can be helpful. It can be the motivator that keeps us self-isolating or washing our hands. But constant or high levels of stress can negatively affect our mental and physical health. Taking care of our minds is always important, but doing so in the middle of a pandemic can be really tricky. Here are some tips and techniques to help us all get through this. Start your day well It can be tempting to reach for your phone or switch on the news first thing in the morning but starting the day with a simple mindfulness exercise, such as ‘Notice 3 things’, can help you check in with how you’re feeling and connect with your environment. Mindfulness is well known to make people feel calmer and cope better with stress. This quick exercise takes less than a minute.
Before you get out of bed: pause and concentrate on 3 things you can see. For example, your patterned curtains, the blue sky or even just a lightbulb. Then listen for 3 things you can hear. The sound of cars passing by, a singing bird or the hum of your boiler. And finally, notice 3 things you can feel in contact with your body. Your PJs, bedsheets or even your cat. Get planning Although it’s tempting to stay curled up in bed - adapting and creating positive new routines can be helpful and keep you motivated. For example, in the place of what was your morning commute or a school-run: listen to a podcast or go for a walk Incorporating some form of exercise outdoors if possible, into every day is good for mental and physical wellbeing. And set aside time to speak to friends, family or work colleagues every day. Connecting with others releases feel-good hormones that help to relieve stress. Stay informed, not overloaded Although we are able to cope with some stress here and there, being constantly exposed to a rolling fear-inducing news-feed can impact your mental health Hearing upsetting or anxiety-provoking news triggers a stress-response in our bodies.
Keeping informed is important, but managing your social media and information intake will make a big difference to how you feel. Try to limit the time you spend listening to, watching or reading things about the outbreak Turn to one or two reliable sources for news and check them just once or twice a day to stay informed. If feelings of anxiety spring up in your day, try a breathing technique, such as box breathing. Concentrating on and controlling your breathing is a scientifically-backed way of making you feel calm. Box breathing is quick, easy and can be done anywhere. Breathe in deeply, through your nose, for a count of 4 Hold your breath for 4 Breathe out completely, through your mouth, for a count of 4 And hold your empty breath for 4 Then repeat 4 times Getting ready for bed Good quality sleep makes a big difference to how you feel. But feeling worried or anxious can make getting to sleep difficult. You could set a coronavirus news curfew, so you don’t watch or read anything to do with the outbreak after 7pm and aim for a regular bedtime.
You might also find it helpful to: avoid caffeine before bed, Not eat or drink too much late in the evening Have a warm bath and keep screens out of your bedroom. If getting to sleep is proving tricky, you can try ‘the body scan’. This simple exercise helps you to relax both your mind and body, and with practice - you might find that it even sends you off to sleep. Whilst you’re lying in bed or resting, take your attention to your feet. Relax and soften them into the bed as much as possible. Then scan up your body, moving to your ankles. Release any tension and soften them into the bed. Once they feel relaxed, move up further to your calves, then knees, thighs and so on. Keep moving slowly up your body, all the way to your head, softening and relaxing every muscle along the way. We hope these simple daily steps will help.
Right now some of you may be sitting at home in self-quarantine, not only because of a lockdown but because you have tested positive for Covid-19. The reason they are still at home is likely because they are suffering from either mild symptoms, like most of the victims of the flu, or they have no symptoms at all. Other victims, unfortunately, are hooked-up to ventilator machines in hospitals. But since we are all potential victims of this virus, you might want to know if there are any long term health impacts, either from mild case or a serious case. We don’t yet have the exact numbers, but current reporting suggests the vast majority of deaths from the virus have been with people who were suffering from another illness. For instance, on March 18, Italy’s national health authority said 99 percent of deaths happened to people who were already ill from some other disease or underlying health problems. That doesn’t mean all people with underlying health problems will die, far from it. As we write this, the one-time business-minded gangster from “The Wire”, one Idris Elba, is at home having tested positive for the virus.
He has said in videos that he has no symptoms, but he also said he has had asthma all his life. The question is, if you already have an underlying health problem, will it get worse after contracting the virus? And what about those who had no health issues in the past? First, it’s not only older people that die from the virus. As we write this, the Centers for disease control and Prevention is saying that in the U.S. alone, one in five people that have been affected in the USA are aged between 20 and 44 and in the UK, health officials have said,“There are some young people who have ended up in intensive care.” From that information,
We can be sure that a lot of healthy young people have gotten the virus so far, and when we are talking about long-term health impacts, we will mostly be focused on those younger cases. Ok, so say you are a young-ish person between20 and 44 with no underlying health problems. When you get the virus, officially named Sars-CoV-2,it will invade your body and infect your cells. As we write this, eight out of ten people are reported to only have mild symptoms. This could include a fever and a cough, and maybe some aching in the body. Affected people will probably feel weak and drained, but that’s because the body is trying to eject the infected cells. People’s immune systems will start to kick in, and chemicals called cytokines will be released. These in short are signaling molecules that are trying to regulate your immunity. In layman's terms, they are kicking ass, but that will make some people feel they have no energy and cause the body aches. Others may have diarrhea or shortness of breath or even a loss of smell and taste. In short, many people’s immune systems fight off the virus very well and some will have no symptoms at all. That doesn’t mean you should go out and rejoice though since even if you aren’t showing any symptoms you could still spread it to other people who might develop worse symptoms. As for how asymptomatic people can spread the disease, well, as we write this we still don’t know how many “silent carriers”are spreading the disease. The World Health Organization has said transmission from asymptomatic patients is rare, but other studies differ on that analysis. As you well know, it’s all the contradictory news reports that makes this pandemic all the more annoying, confusing, and stressful.
We’ll be coming back to the topic of stress again soon too. So, let’s say you are one of those few people who have severe breathing difficulties and end up needing a ventilator to breathe. You might have something called acute respiratory distress syndrome, aka ARDS. Some people will recover from this, but for others their long term quality of life will be affected negatively. They might suffer lung damage that means they will be returning to hospital time and again, while others might suffer from muscle weakness. That’s unfortunately on the good end ofthe spectrum for ARDS, since in many cases it leads to organ failure and death. Even if people who have a very severe case of this infection don’t get ARDS, they may be unfortunate enough to have other organs damaged, but this can happen with any severe infection. We can look at severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS), which was also caused by a coronavirus to try and get an idea of what the current outbreak will be like. Most patients made a full recovery, but some people did have long-term health effects such as chronic shortness of breath or coughing, while others suffered from kidney disease. Though it only occurred in a small percentage of those infected, health experts warn that when you have any kind of lung infection that makes breathing hard, kidney damage can happen. Now back to the cytokines we mentioned earlier. There is something called a “cytokine storm”, which is kind of an overreaction of your immune system. The body might produce a massive inflammatory response, and this can also result in organ damage. Since some people with SARS had long-term health problems from this overactive immune response, some doctors worry it could be the same with Sars-CoV-2. It’s too early to tell for sure though. It was the same with the Middle East respiratory syndrome, aka, MERS.
Most people with mild symptoms generally made a full recovery, but people who had severe cases ended up back in hospital time and again since the damage had been caused to various organs. We should say again that these long-term health problems might only affect people with pre-existing conditions or people who come down with a very severe case of this new infection. We don’t want to stress you, in fact, we want you to feel positive. The reason is, as we speak there are reports stating that many people are suffering from anxiety and depression because of the worry that they might contract COVID-19. But studies have shown that anxiety and depression can actually weaken your immune system and so you can become more susceptible to other diseases. If you do contact COVID-19, you will likely be fine, and recover, and have no serious health problems after recovery. But if you really want to stay healthy then follow the guidelines issued by all major health agencies: avoid large social gatherings, socially distance when in public, wash your hands regularly with soap and water, and avoid touching your face. We’d like to take your mind off the virus for now, and we think you should watch this amusing and informative text.
Comments
Post a Comment