So while being suck inside, you may or may not have noticed symptoms of corona-virus, but you have DEFINITELY noticed symptoms of having anxiety or depression.
Fear not! For I have too been dealing with it, but I know how to help you to feel not as anxious or depressed.
The first little bit of the article will focus on what you can do to help control your anxiety. The middle will help with what activies you can do to help control anxiety AND depression.
The last little bit will just focus on activities that you can do, to help control depression.
I hope that this help you! Please let me know in the comments if you'd like me to personally contact you, (I'm VERY open to video calling on messenger 😊 or if you REALLY need a hug, I can help out with that 😉 unless you're not a girl. Then this may be awkward for you. Please feel free, if you're a guy and need bro hugs to ask one of your guy friends for a hug)
Fear not! For I have too been dealing with it, but I know how to help you to feel not as anxious or depressed.
The first little bit of the article will focus on what you can do to help control your anxiety. The middle will help with what activies you can do to help control anxiety AND depression.
The last little bit will just focus on activities that you can do, to help control depression.
I hope that this help you! Please let me know in the comments if you'd like me to personally contact you, (I'm VERY open to video calling on messenger 😊 or if you REALLY need a hug, I can help out with that 😉 unless you're not a girl. Then this may be awkward for you. Please feel free, if you're a guy and need bro hugs to ask one of your guy friends for a hug)
ANXIETY- Activities to help reduce it
So most people usually are getting anxious, as of lately, because they are spending A LOT of time focus on the news.
My first advice for that would be S.T.O.P.
Although it's great to stay informed and up to date on what's going on, it can REALLY have a toll on your mental health.
Instead, set a certain time everyday to check on the news for a bit, but limit your amount of time that you look at it. Ex: 30-20 mins, every day at 6pm.
Another good point would be to notice how you're feeling as you're scrolling through social media. Are you getting anxious? Are you getting nervous? If so, put down the phone and get up to get a drink of water. Walk around outside for a bit or do something that YOU KNOW that will calm your nerves. Ex: breathing exercises, mediation or yoga.
Make sure your sources are reliable! The most accurate sources are CDC and the World Health Organization.
Focus on what you CAN control. Ex: Washing your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds, avoid touching your face, keep 6 ft distance between you and others when you have to go outside, follow all recommendations from health authorities and most importantly get PLENTY of sleep. (if you find yourself getting too much sleep, it may end up leading to depression rather than anxiety)
Plan for what you can do. Concentrate on things that you can problem solve or change, rather than circumstances beyond your control. Draw a plan of action of what you can do now, and follow through with that plan.
Play a board game. Do something that'll help take your mind off of the situation. You could even do a puzzle or play a game or two or three of Sudoku!
Have a pet? Pet them. There's something about petting a dog or cat (I guess this can also apply to other animals like birds or pigs) that's really soothing that calms us down.
Have something blue. This sounds really weird but literally the color blue creates a feeling of peace and calmness in your mind. Whiter it be finding bed sheets in the house that are blue or wearing the color blue more often, the color blue can surprisingly help reduce A LOT of stress just by looking at it. For me, dark blue works the best.
IF THIS DOES NOT HELP WITH EVERYTHING, PLEASE CONTINUE DOWN AND READ WHAT MORE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE 😄
My first advice for that would be S.T.O.P.
Although it's great to stay informed and up to date on what's going on, it can REALLY have a toll on your mental health.
Instead, set a certain time everyday to check on the news for a bit, but limit your amount of time that you look at it. Ex: 30-20 mins, every day at 6pm.
Another good point would be to notice how you're feeling as you're scrolling through social media. Are you getting anxious? Are you getting nervous? If so, put down the phone and get up to get a drink of water. Walk around outside for a bit or do something that YOU KNOW that will calm your nerves. Ex: breathing exercises, mediation or yoga.
Make sure your sources are reliable! The most accurate sources are CDC and the World Health Organization.
Focus on what you CAN control. Ex: Washing your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds, avoid touching your face, keep 6 ft distance between you and others when you have to go outside, follow all recommendations from health authorities and most importantly get PLENTY of sleep. (if you find yourself getting too much sleep, it may end up leading to depression rather than anxiety)
Plan for what you can do. Concentrate on things that you can problem solve or change, rather than circumstances beyond your control. Draw a plan of action of what you can do now, and follow through with that plan.
Play a board game. Do something that'll help take your mind off of the situation. You could even do a puzzle or play a game or two or three of Sudoku!
Have a pet? Pet them. There's something about petting a dog or cat (I guess this can also apply to other animals like birds or pigs) that's really soothing that calms us down.
Have something blue. This sounds really weird but literally the color blue creates a feeling of peace and calmness in your mind. Whiter it be finding bed sheets in the house that are blue or wearing the color blue more often, the color blue can surprisingly help reduce A LOT of stress just by looking at it. For me, dark blue works the best.
IF THIS DOES NOT HELP WITH EVERYTHING, PLEASE CONTINUE DOWN AND READ WHAT MORE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE 😄
Anxiety and Depression-Activities to do.
All of these activities should be able to help with both anxiety and depression. If you are just dealing with one or the other, these activities should be able to help either way.
I did mention in my anxiety portion to do yoga and mediation, but these can both really work to help control depression as well!
If you've never done breathing exercises before, a good example would be to breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and let out as much air as possible as fast as you can for the remaining time. There are also good breathing exercises on google, if you'd like to search that up instead.
Eat healthy. Simple as that! And eat well balanced meals. NEVER skip a meal! And no unhealthy snacks.
Limit alcohol and caffeine. These can really intensify your systems.
Exercise daily! This will give you the energy and strength to better control your emotions and life in general!
Welcome humor, feel free to put on one of your favorite funny TV shows but don't spend too much time on them! (in the depression section, I will explain this more)
Talk to friends and family over video calls! I know that it's not SUPER ideal but trust me, It's better than not doing it at all. My most important advice with this, that will help the most reduce any sort of anxiety or depression is to be I-N-V-O-L-V-E-D with the other person on the screen! PLEASE DO NOT be the other person on the screen who is not making an effort to make quality time out of it. If you are not trying to make time for the other person on the screen ex: watching YouTube videos while talking to them or having your screen face the ceiling or a wall, it WILL NOT BE QUALITY TIME because you are not making effort and you will be wasting YOUR TIME and THEIR TIME.
Keep a journal! This is a really incredible time in history! You can write about your stresses, how you're feeling and how you're day is going! If you feel like this is useless, you can either name your journal or you can dedicate your writing to your future children. That way, you have somebody that you can write to and talk to and it won't feel worthless. 😊 Plus, you never know! You could end up getting it published! 😄
I did mention in my anxiety portion to do yoga and mediation, but these can both really work to help control depression as well!
If you've never done breathing exercises before, a good example would be to breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and let out as much air as possible as fast as you can for the remaining time. There are also good breathing exercises on google, if you'd like to search that up instead.
Eat healthy. Simple as that! And eat well balanced meals. NEVER skip a meal! And no unhealthy snacks.
Limit alcohol and caffeine. These can really intensify your systems.
Exercise daily! This will give you the energy and strength to better control your emotions and life in general!
Welcome humor, feel free to put on one of your favorite funny TV shows but don't spend too much time on them! (in the depression section, I will explain this more)
Talk to friends and family over video calls! I know that it's not SUPER ideal but trust me, It's better than not doing it at all. My most important advice with this, that will help the most reduce any sort of anxiety or depression is to be I-N-V-O-L-V-E-D with the other person on the screen! PLEASE DO NOT be the other person on the screen who is not making an effort to make quality time out of it. If you are not trying to make time for the other person on the screen ex: watching YouTube videos while talking to them or having your screen face the ceiling or a wall, it WILL NOT BE QUALITY TIME because you are not making effort and you will be wasting YOUR TIME and THEIR TIME.
Keep a journal! This is a really incredible time in history! You can write about your stresses, how you're feeling and how you're day is going! If you feel like this is useless, you can either name your journal or you can dedicate your writing to your future children. That way, you have somebody that you can write to and talk to and it won't feel worthless. 😊 Plus, you never know! You could end up getting it published! 😄
DEPRESSION- Activities to reduce it.
Make a schedule. Like legitimate hour by hour schedule. This may seem odd, but it honestly helped me a lot! Especially when I first lost my job due to this whole pandemic 🙂 (no worries, I have a temp job rn)
Do a hobby you enjoy. Or you can create a new hobby! Or pick up a old hobby that you had to stop doing because you didn't have enough time before. Ex: learn a language that you've always wanted to learn, learn a new dance routine, or pick up that instrument that you had to let go of after high school. Any book series that you haven't gotten the chance to read yet? Now's your chance! Schedule this in EVERY DAY.
Water your plants. If you don't have one, then buy one! There's something about taking care of another living thing that helps reduce depression but also increases stability in your life. Also, the color green is a soothing color that helps create a feeling of peace. The color blue does this too but green can also help out as well.
Don't spend so much time watching videos and TV/Netflix. Although, we pretty much can now watch as much as we want whenever we want, there's something about watching too much TV, spending too much time on social media or even watching too much YouTube that can really increase your depression levels expediently. My recommendation would be to only watch up to 2 hours of TV/Netflix/YouTube at the most. Anymore than that can start to increase levels of depression. If you find yourself still being depressed with that much screen time in your life, reduce your hours and find a good balance for you. On your first day doing this, you may need to not have any screen time at all for a period of 24 hrs.
**My recommendation for Tik Tok if you choose to watch it would be less than this. Only 20 mins a day.
Most importantly, make sure you take care of yourself. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, brush your hair, take a shower, take a bath, don't get too much sleep but enough that it'll make you energized for the day and use a bath or shower bomb. Because you are DA BOMB!
Lastly if you feel like you are getting depressed because of loneliness, particularly loneliness, get out and and talk to someone. Like get out of the house. Yes, this may not be OK, but mental health is just as important as physical health. I'm mostly talking to people who live by themselves who could not easily get effected by coronavirus.
If you are somebody who can easily get affected by coronavirus, all I have to say is that I AM SO SORRY FOR YOU. If you need anybody to talk to, especially during this time, please message me and I will call you and we can have a good quality time video chat.
So like I said, this (in the paragraph above) is for people who can not easily get affected by coronavirus, and who are not going to be in contact with people who can get easily get affected by the coronavirus. Not only that, but these are people who have physical touch as their love language (yes love languages don't just work for couples, it works for friendships too.)
When I say physical touch in friendships, I don't mean kissing. That would be gross. I mean hugging, high-fives and just pats on the hands, arms or knees. Or even holding their arm and squeezing it affectionately can mean a lot.
IF YOU ARE DEPRESSED TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE HAVING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE LOVED BY SOOOO MANY INCLUDING ME.
TALK TO A LOVED ONE AND A CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL. YOU ARE NEEDED. WE LOVE YOU AND I DEFINITELY LOVE YOU.
Do a hobby you enjoy. Or you can create a new hobby! Or pick up a old hobby that you had to stop doing because you didn't have enough time before. Ex: learn a language that you've always wanted to learn, learn a new dance routine, or pick up that instrument that you had to let go of after high school. Any book series that you haven't gotten the chance to read yet? Now's your chance! Schedule this in EVERY DAY.
Water your plants. If you don't have one, then buy one! There's something about taking care of another living thing that helps reduce depression but also increases stability in your life. Also, the color green is a soothing color that helps create a feeling of peace. The color blue does this too but green can also help out as well.
Don't spend so much time watching videos and TV/Netflix. Although, we pretty much can now watch as much as we want whenever we want, there's something about watching too much TV, spending too much time on social media or even watching too much YouTube that can really increase your depression levels expediently. My recommendation would be to only watch up to 2 hours of TV/Netflix/YouTube at the most. Anymore than that can start to increase levels of depression. If you find yourself still being depressed with that much screen time in your life, reduce your hours and find a good balance for you. On your first day doing this, you may need to not have any screen time at all for a period of 24 hrs.
**My recommendation for Tik Tok if you choose to watch it would be less than this. Only 20 mins a day.
Most importantly, make sure you take care of yourself. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, brush your hair, take a shower, take a bath, don't get too much sleep but enough that it'll make you energized for the day and use a bath or shower bomb. Because you are DA BOMB!
Lastly if you feel like you are getting depressed because of loneliness, particularly loneliness, get out and and talk to someone. Like get out of the house. Yes, this may not be OK, but mental health is just as important as physical health. I'm mostly talking to people who live by themselves who could not easily get effected by coronavirus.
If you are somebody who can easily get affected by coronavirus, all I have to say is that I AM SO SORRY FOR YOU. If you need anybody to talk to, especially during this time, please message me and I will call you and we can have a good quality time video chat.
So like I said, this (in the paragraph above) is for people who can not easily get affected by coronavirus, and who are not going to be in contact with people who can get easily get affected by the coronavirus. Not only that, but these are people who have physical touch as their love language (yes love languages don't just work for couples, it works for friendships too.)
When I say physical touch in friendships, I don't mean kissing. That would be gross. I mean hugging, high-fives and just pats on the hands, arms or knees. Or even holding their arm and squeezing it affectionately can mean a lot.
IF YOU ARE DEPRESSED TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE HAVING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE LOVED BY SOOOO MANY INCLUDING ME.
TALK TO A LOVED ONE AND A CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL. YOU ARE NEEDED. WE LOVE YOU AND I DEFINITELY LOVE YOU.
Lastly, for everyone whither or not you are depressed or anxious
Engage in your religious studies. If you are not religious, meditation works great. But again if you are religious, DIVE INTO THE BIBLE. Read your verses everyday! Discover what the bible needs to you because as of right now, you can't really go to your pastor!
Feast upon your gospel learning and seek hope, peace and comfort through Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer.
A particular book that I engage in everyday is the Book of Mormon. It has blessed my life more than any other book on this earth. It is truer than any other book on this earth.
Discover Jesus Christ and who He is through this book. If not, the Bible does offer a lot but I know that the Book of Mormon is priceless and more valuable than any other gemstone in this universe.
**These links that I've provided can help you get these books for free! Missionaries affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ can help you receive them and understand them better, if you're not familiar with Bible-like language.
Feast upon your gospel learning and seek hope, peace and comfort through Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer.
A particular book that I engage in everyday is the Book of Mormon. It has blessed my life more than any other book on this earth. It is truer than any other book on this earth.
Discover Jesus Christ and who He is through this book. If not, the Bible does offer a lot but I know that the Book of Mormon is priceless and more valuable than any other gemstone in this universe.
**These links that I've provided can help you get these books for free! Missionaries affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ can help you receive them and understand them better, if you're not familiar with Bible-like language.
Conclusion
I just want everyone to know that I AM NOT A CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL. If your anxieties and depressions are still bad, even after trying ALL OF THESE AT ONCE (because one of them at a time doesn't work) then please contact a clinical professional. They will know EXACTLY what you need. I can only help out with the basics.
I hope that this has helped everyone and that it has reduced some anxieties and depressions, even if it might not have fully helped reduce them. I'm glad that I can be of help. 😊
If anyone has any other tips that they'd like to provide, feel free to leave them in the comments below! I'd love to hear more advice!
Until next time, I love you, be safe, be healthy (mentally and physically) and make sure to take care of your loved ones.
-Last thought: Should I make a post specifically related to love languages and COVID-19? Let me know in the comments below!
I hope that this has helped everyone and that it has reduced some anxieties and depressions, even if it might not have fully helped reduce them. I'm glad that I can be of help. 😊
If anyone has any other tips that they'd like to provide, feel free to leave them in the comments below! I'd love to hear more advice!
Until next time, I love you, be safe, be healthy (mentally and physically) and make sure to take care of your loved ones.
-Last thought: Should I make a post specifically related to love languages and COVID-19? Let me know in the comments below!