Improving Mental Health During the Pandemic
This week we teamed up with Rehab 4 Addiction, the advisory and referral service for people who suffer from alcohol, drug and behavioural addiction, to bring awareness to the importance of taking good care of your mental health during the pandemic.
Rehab 4 Addiction works closely with rehabilitation centres and outpatient clinics throughout the United Kingdom and the admissions team matches a patients’ addiction with an appropriately placed rehabilitation centre.
Since the start of the pandemic, Rehab 4 Addiction has created resources to help increase awareness and understanding of all aspects of coping with the stress of the lockdown and bereavement. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, many who live with depression are struggling to stay afloat during self or mandated isolation.
Rehab 4 Addiction's aim is that these resources can be one of many stepping stones for those struggling and their loved ones to better understand their situation and lead them to find a safe and supportive environment, especially during the pandemic.
In their guide Coronavirus: Guidance for Better Mental Health, the team explains: "It’s of the utmost importance that we try to remain as composed as we can during this time. The fear and anxiety that is gripping the nation are as contagious, if not more so than the illness itself."
"While we are in no way diminishing the severity of the physical and epidemiological worry surrounding coronavirus, it is crucial that everyone has access to mental health resources, and is clued up on how they can look after themselves and their own mental health.
People with pre-existing mental problems should continue to manage and track their mental health. Self-care is vital, and it’s also important to try and reduce the stress for ourselves and others around us."
Rehab 4 Addiction gives practical tips to maintain or even improve your mental health during the pandemic and while staying at home, including:
1. Find somewhere safe to stay
2. Eat properly and drink enough
3. Keep taking your medication
4. Continue with your treatment and support
Another great tip from the service is to try not to let anxiety overtake you and mistake it for COVID-19 symptoms:
"If you suffer from anxiety and panic attacks often, you might start to think it’s the new coronavirus. Check the symptoms before you start assuming it’s a coronavirus, and try to calm yourself down. Once you realize that the symptoms of COVID-19 are very much different from those of an anxiety attack, you’ll feel more at ease. The early signs of COVID-19 are coughing, sore throat, headaches, and fever."
"For anxiety attacks, it’s usual to have a racing heartbeat, sweating, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath (which is sometimes also a symptom of coronavirus)."
If you experience symptoms of anxiety or OCD during coronavirus, Rehab 4 Addiction advises you contact your personal doctor or a psychiatrist.
The team also gives great tips to take care of your mental wellbeing during this time, which can be used daily as a conscious effort to not let the pandemic take over your life:
1. Connect with people without meeting them
2. Set up a routine
3. Physical activity is key
4. Go out into nature and get some air
5. Work or study from home
6. Keep yourself busy
7. Keep your brain challenged
8. Grab some fresh air if you start feeling claustrophobic
9. Limit your media diet
Caution is also key if you're recovering from substance abuse, because of the risk of relapsing, but also because of the risk of the pandemic itself: "People who suffer from substance abuse disorders are more susceptible to diseases and viruses, and that’s because of the failing immune system and ill-health that’s induced due to the disorder."
Rehab 4 Addiction gives a great list of guidelines and resources to stay strong and focused during this time and avoid a relapse.
To read the full guide from Rehab 4 Addiction, or fine your nearest help centre, head over their website now.
Staying home and out of ideas? Here are our resources to help you keep calm and busy during this time.
And for more information about how we can help your mental health business with public relations, please contact our team here.