Phillipa Brown

If you have a friend or loved one who is struggling with mental health issues, it can be difficult to know how to support them.

Here are some tips that may help:

- Listen to them without judgement. It can be helpful for your friend or loved one to simply be heard, so try to avoid giving advice or passing judgement. Just let them know that you are there for them and they can talk to you about anything. Be patient.

– Educate yourself. You can educate yourself about mental health and what your friend or loved one is going through. This will help you to understand their experiences and give you the tools to support them in the best way possible.

– Encourage them to seek professional help. If your friend or loved one is willing to seek help from a mental health professional, encourage them to do so. This could involve making appointments and going with them to appointments if they feel comfortable with this.

– Help them develop a support network. Connecting with others who are going through similar experiences can be very helpful. This could involve joining a support group or simply arranging social activities with friends.

– Take care of yourself. It is important to remember that you cannot help your friend or loved one if you do not take care of yourself first. Make sure to schedule time for activities that make you happy and relax you. This could include exercise, reading, spending time in nature, or anything else that brings you joy.

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It has been a very unusual time for everyone where life as we know it changed drastically due to the COVID-19 lock down period. At first it may have seemed daunting at the thought of being constrained to your house for months, but with everything going on outside, it quickly became a safe place to be. Now that restrictions are starting to lift, some people are apprehensive about life outside again.

After spending a long period of time at home, it’s normal to be feeling some anxiety about leaving lockdown. For some, the easing of restrictions can bring about a sense of ‘lockdown relief,’ but for others it may raise some concerns about safety. Furthermore, the anxiety of emerging to life as normal again may not be a reality for those who have lost jobs or taken pay cuts, which may trigger fears of social evaluation by others.

The idea of getting back to normality again can trigger a number of emotions such as joy, excitement, confusion, fear, anxiety or panic, or perhaps all of these at once. How you go about getting back to ‘pre-COVID’ activities will be different for everyone. One of the most important aspects to the transition will be planning to cope with mental health. Fears around the use of public spaces, using public transport and attending social events again can trigger a myriad of emotions, but as the ease of restrictions start to lift, everyone has the right to make their own decisions as to how they wish to return to life outside the home.

For someone living with social anxiety, being at home a lot may have found some sense of relief by the reduced number of social gatherings, but as restrictions start to lift, you might be feeling triggered by the thought of having to re-familiarise yourself again with public and social aspects that have been avoided for some months now. It’s important to remind yourself that you are able to do everything at your own pace and that by easing yourself back into the activities you were doing before may take some time to achieve. Being invited to a dinner, or a small get-together doesn’t mean you have to attend. You might need some time to feel comfortable again in these situations and that’s OK.

If you’re a highly anxious person, it might be helpful to proceed back into normal life slowly. Start by reintroducing yourself back into public places that you feel comfortable in and build upon visiting various places at your own pace. Be mindful of your limitations and boundaries and ensuring that you’re allowing yourself to be patient with the re-adjustment period. In the case that you do find yourself becoming anxious, some of the following tips might be helpful in overcoming symptoms of anxiety:

1. Breathing
Sometimes when you’re anxious, you actually forget to breath properly. Most people aren’t really conscious of the way they’re breathing, but generally, there are two types of breathing patterns:

• Thoracic (chest) breathing
• Diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing

Take a moment to notice your breathing; is it short and shallow from the chest? This is Thoracic breathing. You may not even be aware you’re doing this but it could be contributing to your anxiety because chest breathing causes an upset to oxygen and carbon dioxide levels resulting in increased heart rate, dizziness, and other physical sensations.
The next time you’re feeling anxious, try Diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing.
1. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your abdomen should expand, and your chest should rise very little.
2. Exhale slowly through your mouth. As you blow air out, purse your lips slightly, but keep your jaw relaxed. You may hear a soft “whooshing” sound as you exhale.
This can be repeated as many times as necessary and can be achieved standing up, sitting or lying down.

2. Exercise
Exercise stimulates endorphins and endorphins make us “feel good.” Getting the body moving in any capacity can help to decrease tension in the body, which may be contributing to anxiety. Studies have shown that one vigorous exercise can help alleviate symptoms for hours, and a regular schedule may significantly reduce them over time. But while vigorous exercise isn’t for everyone, particularly when feeling under pressure, Psychologists studying how exercise relieves anxiety suggested that even a 10-minute walk could be effective in alleviating symptoms.

3. Reduce Caffeine Intake
The love for coffee in Australia is so strong that it might be difficult to hear it may be contributing to your anxiety. Caffeine is a stimulant, which can increase your “fight or flight” response, where your body is responding to situations that you perceive as being worrisome or threatening. Caffeine can trigger this response, making you overreact to situations that aren’t actually dangerous. If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, it may be a good time to check your daily caffeine intake and consider some alternatives. If cutting out caffeine altogether is not feasible on your functioning, try to learn and track your habits and try reducing consumption in small ways over time.

4. Find your meditation
The reason I say find “your” meditation is because everyone is different. While one person may find yoga to be meditative, another may find reading a book to be just as effective. When searching for your outlet, find something that helps you to relax. If going to a meditation class is not an ideal scenario for you just yet, finding something that you can enjoy on your own or with a friend might be more practical. Try to build your toolbox of meditative outlets that you can utilise when your anxiety is heightened based on the limitations of the use of public places and spaces. These can be added to your regular self-care regime to begin your prevention plan for anxiety in the future.

5. Use positive self-talk
Positive self-talk can be very powerful in combatting anxiety. During times when Anxiety is present, can often lead to very negative thoughts. Perhaps this is a good time to let you know just how powerful your mind is. Experts estimate that the mind comes up with 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day – amazing right? But when anxiety is prevalent, the mind is very good at listening to the negative chatter, which can be quite unhelpful. Thankfully, we have a choice whether to listen to the negative thoughts or increase the positive ones. Using positive affirmations are a good place to start to remember what you are capable of. Here are some examples:
1. “I can take things one step at a time,”
2. “Anxiety does not define me”
3. “I am in control”
4. “I’ve made it through this before, I can do it again.”
5. “This is only temporary,”

We as humans are very adaptable and as quickly as we adapted to life inside the house, we will very quickly re-adapt to life outside again, but this may take some time to achieve. Having the right supports in place will be very important to ensuring your mental health needs are met during this transition. The use of telehealth is a great option to talk to a professional if your anxiety becomes unmanageable.

Mental Health on a basic functioning level entail’s three key areas: 1. Sleep, 2. Diet, and 3. Exercise. When any or all of these areas are compromised, the mind and body will begin to provide you feedback. That feedback is often negative in the form of feeling tired, foggy, sluggish and you may begin to lose concentration and attention to tasks as well as that key driver to daily success, motivation. But more often than not, the negative feedback is overlooked and easily blamed on other environmental stressors, for example; work, study or family stress. It’s easy to ignore the lack of sleep because you have a big project due, or to miss that workout because you didn’t wake up in time, just like it might be easier to reach for a sugary snack because it boosts your energy quicker than something healthy that might take longer to kick in. Often people prioritise things like work, study and family over health because it naturally seems like the right thing to do. However, your health should be just as important and is something that needs tending to every single day because, if you’re not looking after yourself, it becomes increasingly difficult to help others. The saying “you cannot serve from an empty vessel “– Eleanor Brownn, suggests you cannot help others if you have not enough to help yourself. So how do we take care of ourselves on a daily basis?

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Sleep

First and foremost, sleep: A healthy adult requires 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Most people estimate that they are sleeping enough and are under the impression that losing an hour of sleep a night is trivial and inconsequential. It is anything but. Matthew Walker, a leading sleep scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley points out that humans have a recycle rate of around sixteen hours, where after this time the brain begins to fail. For a general idea, adults need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance and emotional stability. A study found that sleep deprivation can have detrimental effects on the brain and body where after ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. The most interesting part of this study was that after ten days of having lost an hour of sleep per night, most people reported that they did not feel sleep deprived and were doing actually doing well – cognitive testing proceeding the poor sleep phase suggested otherwise. Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night compromises your immune system, memory, attention and emotion regulation. On the contrary, some people may be getting more than 7 hours of sleep a night, but are still waking up the next day feeling fatigued and reporting symptoms similar to sleep deprivation. Based on this, you might be suffering from an undiagnosed sleep disorder (there are more than 100 sleep disorders). The most common is insomnia, followed by sleep-disordered breathing (sleep apnea). If you feel you may be suffering from a sleep disorder, speak to your doctor immediately and seek a referral to a sleep specialist.

Diet

The next pillar to be mindful of is diet. Although serotonin is well known as a brain neurotransmitter, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the digestive tract and plays a role in emotions and happiness. So, it’s no wonder that what you eat can affect how you feel. The brain-gut theory supports the connection between our brain and the gastrointestinal (GI) system. Latest researchers have been working on providing evidence about the beneficial effects of the link between the central nervous system and the GI tract. The findings of the clinical trials show that the foods you eat have certain psychological outcomes for human beings. This is a very effective approach leading to the control and prevention of many mental health disorders. Further to the interaction of serotonin on the GI, it also plays a role in digestion. As serotonin is primarily found in your gut, it is essential for digestion and can be affected by poor sleep and stress. Your sleep wake cycle is supported by a delicate balance of cortisol (stress hormone), and melatonin (sleep hormone). Ideally, melatonin should be rising at night to facilitate sleep, while cortisol should peak in the morning helping you to wake up. However, both have its challenges if attempting to function at the same time. High cortisol levels signal your brain that you are in a dangerous situation, so it is hard to fall asleep during that time. Too much cortisol can also affect the balance of serotonin depleting it in the gut and leading to problems with bowels and can slow down the digestive system – another reason to ensure you’re getting enough sleep and reducing stress levels where possible. The gut health helps in attaining good mood and better cognitive skills i.e. stamina, memory and behavioural outcomes. Plan a few goals and keep yourself connected with your mind and body for overall health.

Sleep also has an effect on diet, which is an important link to understand its functional value. Essentially, sleep regulates appetite through two hormones, ghrelin and leptin. When the body is sleep-deprived, the level of ghrelin spikes, while the level of leptin falls, leading to an increase in hunger. In other words, when you’re tired, your mind activates ghrelin, which we can call the hungry gremlin hormone that triggers feelings of hunger and creates intense cravings for fat and sugar-laden foods. This serves as a functional purpose to exacerbate your need for additional energy sources in order to maintain a wakeful state. However, it makes healthier choices more challenging than if you had a good sleep and were running off more sustainable energy sources. Sugar and fat are great fast activating energy sources for a shot-term outcome, but are not overly sustainable or healthy long-term.

Exercise

Exercise is the final pillar to outline. Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression and negative mood, while at the same time increasing self-esteem and cognitive function. Further to this, exercise stimulates endorphins and endorphins make us “feel good.” Getting the body moving in any capacity can help to decrease tension in the body. Studies have shown that one vigorous exercise can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety for hours, and a regular schedule may significantly reduce them over time. But while vigorous exercise isn’t for everyone, particularly when feeling under pressure, Psychologists studying how exercise relieves anxiety suggested that even a 10-minute walk could be effective in alleviating symptoms of anxiety.

Sleep is also an important factor when it comes to exercise where sleep and physical exertion have a bidirectional relationship. Have you ever been on a day-long hike, an extended bike ride, or even just had an exhausting day at work and noticed that you sleep more deeply after doing so? Studies show that increased levels of physical activity correspond to progressive increase in the amount of deep (NREM) sleep. This relationship is a great example of which pillar is most important when it comes to sleep, diet and exercise. Overall, each pillar requires the other to function and serve a purpose to facilitate one another. The functional link between all three pillars are important to understand their effectiveness when utilised in conjunction.

Having the ability to adapt to difficult situations is Resilience. It is when you are able to keep functioning psychologically even when adversity, trauma, stress or a period of crisis, like the Covid lockdown, strikes. This is not to say that the feeling of grief, pain and anger is not experienced but being able to walk through all of it means that you are resilient.

Importance of Being Mentally Resilient
The benefits of mental resilience cannot be over-emphasized.
• It improves your ability to cope with negative situations and regulate emotions.
• It prevents mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
• It helps develop greater resistance to stress.

Habits that can help build your Mental Resilience
Here are some of strategies to help you build mental resilience:

Create a schedule
Routine is key! Ensure you plan your working day accordingly and include all meal breaks as you would in the office. Everyday ensure you do things that can give you a sense of fulfilment.

Set Goals
Putting in mind that this lockdown is not forever, continue to create future goals for yourself – plan your next adventure post lockdown. Setting these goals helps you look towards the future with hope.

Create a reward system
Try to do all the challenging and hard work before you decide to sit down to watch your favourite television show. Having a good reward system for achieving your set goals keeps you motivated.

Don’t stop moving
Being at home means you will move around less. Losing your usual day-to-day activities will also mean you naturally lose basic exercise and fresh air that you would normally be getting on your commute to and from work and generally being outside the house. Try to exercise at least 20 minutes a day (even if it’s just a walk). Exercise stimulates endorphins, which are “happy hormones” — they make us “feel good.” Getting the body moving in any capacity can help decrease body tension, which may contribute to anxiety.
Studies have shown that one vigorous exercise can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety for hours, and a regular schedule may significantly reduce them over time. But while vigorous exercise isn’t for everyone, particularly when under pressure, psychologists studying how exercise relieves anxiety suggested that even a 10-minute walk could be effective in alleviating symptoms.

Good Sleep Habits
Having a good sleep habit helps you to build resilience. When you are tired and exhausted, you feel a lot more stressed, and small problems seem bigger.
Ensure that you separate your work time from sleep time. Don’t turn. your bed into your work-station this may confuse your sleep schedule because when it comes time to actually sleep your mind believes it should be actively in ‘work-mode.’
Ensure you’re getting enough sleep – this may require between 7 and 9 hours, but ample sleep will help you to stay focussed, increase concentration, regulate emotion and minimise stress. If you’re having difficulty sleeping, try downloading a sleep app on your phone and start monitoring your sleep cycles to see what you could improve on. The key to a good night’s sleep for a healthy adult is 8 hours of sleep per night where 1-2 of those hours are in deep sleep. Research more about deep sleep if you feel you are getting enough hours but aren’t feeling ‘refreshed’ when you wake up.

Good Eating Habits
Eating healthy will be essential to mental resilience. This is not to say that you have to change your diet during lockdown, but be mindful that you’re getting enough fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. If you’re tired or not getting enough sleep, it’s natural for your body to crave sugary foods to help boost your focus and attention. This may be helpful in the short-term, but is not sustainable and will only lead to a crash later on. Choosing healthier options throughout the day will benefit your mind and body in the long-run.

Create balance
Just because you’re at home more often, doesn’t mean you should be working more, or feeling pressured to pick up a new language, or start training for the next Ninja Warrior. Ensure you are spending just as much if not more time doing the things you enjoy and that help you to relax. There is a fair amount of pressure amounting where people feel as though they should be utilising this ‘extra’ time to undertake new ventures. However, without balance, motivation is difficult to continue even the simplest tasks. So, take it easy and take as much time to tune out as you require.

Keep in Touch with Family and Friends
This lockdown period is a very good time to be in touch with friends and loved ones. We all need each other at this time, so building strong and positive relationships can give the needed support. You can also connect with people online in the community to form new relationships. Again, don’t feel pressured to connect with people, but sociability is important to remember.
You can also find simple online activities you can do with family and friends, such as trivia, games or online board games.

Self-care
Find something to help you relax and unwind. Find your meditation.
The reason I say find “your” meditation is because everyone is different. While one person may find yoga to be meditative, another may find reading a book to be just as effective. When searching for your outlet, find something that helps you to relax. If meditation is something you find frustrating because you’ve never been able to do it, simply find something you can do quietly to relax that might be more practical. Try to build your toolbox of meditative outlets that you can utilise when your anxiety is heightened based on the limitations of the use of public places and spaces. These can be added to your regular self-care regime to begin your prevention plan for anxiety in the future.

Decrease Negativity
If you find yourself feeling affected or triggered by negative news and social media – try disconnecting from them from time to time. You can catch up on news at times when you feel absolute necessary, but perhaps disconnecting from it on a regular basis might help to prevent you from becoming indulged in the fear-mongering headlines and online debates. Furthermore, there are other ways of reducing content by ‘muting’ people on Instagram or ‘hiding’ people from Facebook whom you would like to minimise seeing their content. This may be a helpful way of reducing unwanted content without having to remove people altogether.

Be proactive in solving problems
Don’t overlook your problems, rather understand that they are temporary and that you have what it takes to make it through. Try to develop strategies that can help solve the problem at hand rather than waiting for the problem to solve itself or take a toll on your emotions.

Use positive self-talk
Positive self-talk can be very powerful in combating anxiety. Anxiety, when present, can often lead to negative thoughts. Perhaps this is a good time to let you know just how powerful your mind is. Experts estimate that the mind comes up with 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day – amazing, right? Thankfully, we have a choice of whether to harbour the negative thoughts or embrace the positive ones.
Using positive affirmations is a good place to start to remember what you are capable of
Here are some examples:
“I can take things one step at a time,”
“Anxiety does not define me.”
“I am in control.”
“I’ve made it through this before, and I can do it again.”
“This is only temporary,”

Ask for help
You cannot do it all by yourself. The most resilient people reach out and ask for help when needed. There’s a common saying that “a problem shared is a problem solved.” Learn to ask for help when you feel the need to.
If you’re not coping, speak to someone you can trust. This may be a colleague, a supervisor at work or a professional. Remember that you’re not alone in this and that people are here to help you if you need it.

MeHelp is available to you and is available most days for your convenience. Connect online via our website at www.mehelp.com.au or call 1300 323 411. Alternatively, you may also want to reach out to various helplines such as Lifeline 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.

As humans, we are very adaptable, and as quickly as we adapted to life inside the house, we will very quickly re-adapt to life outside again, but this may take some time to achieve. Having the right supports in place will be very important to ensure your mental health needs are met during this transition. The use of telehealth is a great option to talk to a professional if your anxiety becomes unmanageable.