Pandemic is stressful for many people across the world. This is due to various reasons – job loss or fear of job loss, long work hours as managing both household chores and office/business work, financial pressure due to job loss, social distancing and continuous news update on novel coronavirus making people feel overwhelmed and adding to the stress on what will happen next and who will get infected or by when this will come to an end. Due to this, many mental health diseases are on the rise for example: sleeplessness, memory loss, losing patience too frequently, getting into depression, mood swings, etc. These further lead to chronic health diseases such as high blood pressure, fatty liver, cardiovascular diseases and much more. The reasons behind these diseases can be due to wrong eating patterns, more usage of alcohol, tobacco and longer screening time. But if we know to cope up with the stress in a healthy way we can strengthen and control our mind. Read to know more!

A new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that depression among people have increased by 3x when compared to before the pandemic situation. Among adults in the US, depression increased from 8.5% to close to 28% from ‘before the pandemic’ situation to mid-April of this year.

So, how do you take care of your mental health during this tough time? Here are some self-care strategies:

1. Take care of your mind. Here are some tips:

• Meditate, remember the positive, happy experiences when negative thinking comes to your mind (do it every time and manage a diary – writing down how many times you encountered negative thinking vs. positive thinking helps you to control your negative thoughts), do things that make you most happy - listening to music, exercise, or exploring new recipes or learning new things; setting priorities; maintaining a daily routine including breakfast, lunch and dinner time, time for stretch out and  short breaks are key; making yourself engaged in work takes you away from any unwanted tension; reducing media, news and screen time.

2. Take care of your body. Here are some tips:

• Eat right, make ‘exercise’ or ‘short walk’ part of your daily routine, sleep for at least 8 hours, limit screen time (not to exceed 2 hours a day), and relax and recharge

3. Get connected with others: Social distancing is taxing on your mind, but you can still be connected with your family and friends via email, text messages, talking to them regularly or connecting with them over a phone, WhatsApp video call or similar etc. Other ways to connect is to help elderly people to bring their groceries or medicines regularly, help a family member or friend who had been isolated due to the disease, by sending them a motivational message daily.
4. Identify what’s typical and what’s not: Going through stress and feeling sad/angry/ frustrated/anxious is normal as all of us goes through this and it’s okay to accept these. However, if you think, these are bothering you too much and you feel like taking some drastic steps – hurting yourself, commit suicide, not able to talk to others, then please do the following:

• Be social, talk to friends and family; reach out to employee assistance program or your family physician or nearby physician for help; reach out to CDC helpline or emergency help number or emergency contact person in your community

5. Seek immediate help during urgency: Contact National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for help 

As per CDC website, here are the immediate help numbers or contact details during the crisis:

Get immediate help in a crisis

• Call 911
• National Child Abuse Hotlineexternal icon: 1-800-4AChild (1-800-422-4453) or text 1-800-422-4453
• National Domestic Violence Hotlineexternal icon: 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522
• National Suicide Prevention Lifelineexternal icon: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for English, 1-888-628-9454 for Spanish, or Lifeline Crisis Chatexternal icon.

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As we, Custom Health RX, believe in taking deep care of patients with great empathy, in this crucial time, we are with you and pray for your best health condition as always. Stay safe, take preventive measures and live a healthy life!

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