As the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly coming to a halt, people are finally resuming their pre-pandemic activities and busy schedules. While this requires an adjustment from the adopted “new” normal, many businesses are starting to boom again, and families and friends are being reunited. As society comes together to collectively battle the virus with mass vaccinations, an opportunity presents itself to reflect on how your mental health was impacted during quarantine and mandated social distancing. It is essential to understand personal reactions to the pandemic to conform to previous routines and re-enter society successfully.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with psychotherapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, and couples with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, and life transitions. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing telehealth (video/phone) sessions to residents of New Jersey and New York.
Heightened Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic
It is not uncommon for many people to have experienced anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anxiety can be broadly defined as feelings of:
Fret
Nervousness
Agitation
On edge
Lack of concentration
The battle with COVID-19 has been intense from the start, first originating overseas and then making its way to the United States. Many people have experienced anxiety as a result of quarantine. First, it is important to know that it is completely natural to feel anxious since anxiety is a protector, triggering the fight-or-flight response. This response has allowed humans to exist despite dangerous challenges. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the general uncertainty surrounding the virus, it is easy to understand why many reacted with heightened anxiety levels.
To mitigate this increased anxiety, having a safety plan can be helpful. Even as we continue to resume pre-pandemic activities, people must proceed with caution. First and foremost, we must listen to governmental agencies and scientists who advise us on how to interact with others given vaccination status and businesses involving mask-wearing mandates. By listening to officials, much of the responsibility is lifted off of our shoulders regarding the decision-making process over protection.
Specific populations of society may feel more prone to anxiety:
People with an anxiety disorder
At-risk populations for COVID-19
Children
Health care workers
Anxiety impacts one’s thoughts and actions and the symptoms of anxiety vary, manifesting itself physically in some people. In instances of harm, anxiety helps people attend to the threat; however, this danger may not always be real.
The culmination of anxiety can produce:
Increased heartbeat
Sweating
Complications with swallowing
Inability to focus
Given the context of COVID-19, anxiety can produce feelings of helplessness and doom, causing people to over-focus and over-watch the news. As we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with COVID-19, we can focus on the ways we built resiliency throughout the pandemic.
Steps to help with your anxious feelings:
Gather information on the source of your anxiety. Knowing more about the ‘enemy’ can assist in lessening anxiety. By having accurate intelligence, you are in a better position to feel in control of your situation.
Adopting a post-pandemic routine can be beneficial since this type of structure breeds serenity and convenience. Mindfully curating a weekly schedule can help monitor your tasks and put you on track to achieve your goals.
Journaling and meditation are great ways to monitor yourself. Journaling can record your thoughts, aspirations, worries, and feelings while meditation can free stress.
Look for the positive in every situation. It is important to acknowledge the negative aspects of a situation but be sure to be aware of the goodness.
2. Managing Job-Related Stresses during Social Isolation
In addition to general pandemic-related anxiety, working from home produced many worries in and of itself. With the ever-present factor of job stability looming over many people’s heads, the difficulty of working from home has increased due to personal obligations, such as children or sick loved ones. The transition from being in the office to mandatory work-from-home policies was abrupt. Working from home for a lengthy period with the unknowingness of when an in-person return will occur is reason enough for stress without taking personal situations into account.
As many have worked from home for this past year and will continue to do so until further notice, there are many tips we can take along with us throughout this experience:
Having defined working hours is crucial to constructing boundaries between the personal and professional aspects of your life. By having a defined workspace and schedule, you will have an understandable idea of when you should be working and when you should rest. This will also be helpful as you transition back to being in the office full time with your co-workers since being on the same schedule as your colleagues is critical.
For many people during the pandemic, they continued to build transitions into work. For instance, many people having to commute to work, they gave themselves that ‘traveling’ time to prepare for work. They may have used their commute time to listen to music, drink some coffee, or squeeze a workout in. Your morning routine should persist as you enter the office again.
Communication should remain a critical component of your professional skill set. Given the virtual setting of many, unique challenges presented themselves and required immediate action which had to be properly communicated. Even if someone was not physically next to you, they were still there to help online. As many are returning to the office, it is important that communication and collaborative skills are being exercised regularly.
3. Emotional Eating as a Coping Mechanism during Quarantine
Many people developed coping mechanisms during quarantine. Coping mechanisms are the plans of action that people employ during stressful situations to manage distressing feelings. Some people have found healthy ways to cope with pandemic-related stress, such as exercising, meditating, and eating healthy. On the other hand, many have unfortunately turned to unhealthy coping mechanisms, like alcohol and substance abuse. An additional coping mechanism has been emotional eating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
During quarantine, especially during the height of the pandemic, many people turned to their fridges or pantries for comfort. This coping mechanism can occur in a number of situations and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. On top of previous responsibilities, the pandemic has added to daily stress and anxiety. Acknowledging food triggers is vital to ending the cycle. Having a food diary can be beneficial to understanding the link between your mood and the food you are consuming.
In your food diary, you can write:
What you ate
How much you ate
Your emotions during the process
Your level of fullness before and after eating
As we re-enter society and our schedules become filled with office time and fun activities, this ‘schedule’ will create a more structured day where food is not central to our constant thoughts.
To properly direct your energy towards ending the cycle of emotional eating, you can take a few simple steps:
Before you go to eat, check in with yourself and see what your hunger level is. You may be reaching for food due to stress or boredom.
By eating balanced meals with substantial fiber and protein, you feel satisfied.
Instead of purchasing processed foods, having healthy snacks, like fruit and popcorn, stocked in your fridge and pantry is helpful.
Know that it is completely acceptable to indulge in the occasional snack, so you are not depriving yourself.
Deciphering and comprehending your pandemic-related triggers, stresses, and coping mechanisms is vital to planning a healthy return to pre-pandemic life. Understanding your reactions can allow you to create better habits to build a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle. While this past year has been challenging, to say the least, we can look to identify the silver lining. For some, this pandemic has increased the amount of quality time that they spend with family members. For others, it has offered silence so inner-work and personal reflection can occur. One of the many things that everyone can take from the pandemic is the importance of learning more about themselves and managing responsibilities during an international health crisis.
For additional information, please view the following sources:
Cecchetto, Cinzia, Aiello, Marilena, Gentili, Claudio, Ionta, Silvio & Osimo, Sofia Adelaide. (2021). Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown, psychological and social distress. Appetite, 160.
Jarosz, Joanna. (2021). The impact of coaching on well-being and performance of managers and their teams during pandemic. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 19(1), 4-27.
Kumar, V. Vineeth, Tankha, Geetika, Shelly, Seth, Sylvi, Apeksha & Timple, Tanya S. (2020). Construction and preliminary validation of the COVID-19 Pandemic Anxiety Scale. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(9), 1019-1024.
Victoria Scala
is an intern at Anchor Therapy in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is currently an undergraduate student at the Honors College of Rutgers University-Newark, looking to study Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the graduate level. As an intern at Anchor Therapy, Victoria is committed to producing content for and managing the office’s social media presence and blog.
