Coronavirus Stress: 6 Steps To Prevent A Nervous Breakdown From Overwhelming You
Don't let stress shut you down.
by Caique Silva from Pexels During this time of COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, you may feel parts of you "shutting down" due to anxiety or stress.
Your mental health is taking a wallop right now due to coronavirus fears, and you may even feel like you're on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
Are those stressed parts of you begging for you to run, hyper-focus on a mindless task, sleep, or escape?
These sensations are all completely normal.
Your nervous system is trying to stay well. Yes, that’s right. All of these feelings are ways the nervous system tries to keep you in balance.
It sounds like a bad idea — to shut you down when you are struggling to have enough energy. But from your body's perspective, it makes perfect sense.
Here's how your survival mechanism works:
With so much personal and collective change, bad news, required planning for simple things, isolation, fear, confusion and frustration, your sympathetic nervous system is likely on high alert.
This means that your body is set up to fight, flee, or freeze more often than usual.
Your body cannot physically withstand this constant “juicing” of the nervous system. So the mind overloads, weary from feeling the physical need to respond without a clear and actionable danger.
How many times this week have you caught yourself wondering what you were just doing or what you planned to do?
Your brain is working overtime just trying to think your way through so many internal and external messages.
If you generally experience chronic fear and anxiety, you already know how this feels.
Here’s the important news: Because we are all descended from survivors with the same innate survival mechanisms in place, eventually your wise nervous system reacts to this increase in stress by shutting things down a bit.
By recognizing your own body’s response and knowing how to welcome it, you can save yourself a great deal of depressed suffering!
So, how can you know if your nervous system is trying to take care of you in this way?
The sensation of the body moving from a sympathetic nervous system response into a stress response is typified by a shutdown. This shut down provides necessary relief for your physical body.
From an emotional and behavioral perspective, though, this stress response looks like less activity, more inertness, and physically or emotionally shutting the world out. In animals, this looks like “playing dead.”
Here are 6 steps to make sure you're preventing a nervous breakdown due to COVID-19 coronavirus stress.
1. Simply appreciate your body’s rest response.
Do not make a mental or moral meaning of this reaction.
For example, avoid thoughts like: “Here I go into one of my depressions!” Or, “I should be doing a million things; I’m useless!”
2. Be kind to yourself.
If you hear self-criticism, take a moment to breathe and remind yourself that this “down” feeling is just a brief physiological break.
Imagine you were running and gasping for air — you would stop and take a minute to recover. This is also a physical response. Allow your body the benefit of resting.
3. Get a good amount of sleep.
Set your alarm if you are actually reclining and napping. Give yourself a time that feels reasonable to you. This may be from 10 minutes to a full night’s sleep, depending.
4. Make sure to move.
Once you've allowed your body to rest and recover, get some movement.
In order to bring yourself into a nervous system state that is compatible with feeling better, you'll need to bring in some physical movement.
Practice saying, “Now I get to gently move,” to yourself whenever you need even a bit of energy.
Movement is key, because if you allow your mind to go into a story when you're in a stress response, your story will not likely be hopeful, productive, motivated, or social.
Your thinking is not broken, by the way. It is normal.
5. Bring a little energy to your body.
This movement can be as simple as imaging movement or seeing “light.”
You may, if it’s comfortable, breathe a bit more deeply, listen to music, wiggle your extremities, or make a face.
Whatever feels possible for you, patiently allow your body to accept it.
6. Do things you enjoy.
Especially during this pandemic, your next step is to do something healthy and pleasant or a little fun.
This is a good time to hug a pet, do some writing, draw or doodle, move your body, cook, play music, or laugh.
It may feel difficult to allow yourself some pleasure or brightness at this time when life around you feels dire. But it is crucial.
The sensation of lightness in your body is not to be taken lightly.
Feeling at least a moment of well-being each day is also a crucial part of your modern survival mechanism.
Even small feelings of social connection, love, wholeness, or belonging help your nervous system to grow strong and resilient.
Practice by feeling these positive sensations occasionally throughout your day by talking, thinking, or writing about them.
A healthy nervous system is a true treasure. Be kind and patient to your amazing body as we together move through this pandemic.
Ingrid Helander is a marriage and family therapist. For more information on her services, visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.