Northwest Iowa — Many different aspects of the coronavirus/COVID-19 situation are being handled in many different ways. But some people are getting overly anxious about the impact of the pandemic.
However, there is help available. Collin Bohlke is an outpatient therapist with Seasons Center for Mental Health. He tells us some ways to cope.
(as said:)”I think it is to stay calm. I think first of all, you know, we live in a technological world where a lot of our technology is at our fingertips and you know, obviously, that can be a good thing and a bad thing. When we think about the Coronavirus and kind of getting as much information as we can. We want to focus on the facts and not the fear of the situation. It’s really important to protect you and your family and loved ones from the virus. But you know, obviously doing the things that the CDC recommends like washing your hands frequently for 20 seconds and staying home when you’re feeling sick or ill and covering your coughs and sneezes…”
He says it’s important to recognize factual information and separate it from opinions and feelings.
(as said:)”You want to recognize when other people are expressing fear and anxiety to you as another human and making sure that that’s not influencing your own emotional mental health because when we integrate those fears and anxieties of others into our own fears and anxieties and mental state, you know, we can act and make decisions that are fear-based rather than fact-based. So I think staying calm is really important.”
He says anxiety’s worst enemy is having a plan.
(as said:)”You’ll feel like you’re better able to cope with coronavirus when you have a plan in place and when you’re using trusted sources. On the other end of that you want to also not try to take in too much information, whether it’s real or fake. Some of us — or maybe a lot of us — sometimes try to get our information off of Facebook. And unfortunately, that’s not a credible news source. You want to make sure that the information fact-based but then you also want to kind of unplug a little bit. Try to not be sat in front of the TV for the whole time or you know try to not be on your phone as much.”
Of course, he says getting adequate sleep and exercise and eating healthy foods is always important, and will help in anxious times. But Bohlke says there is another step you can take if your feelings are over-the-top.
(as said:)”If you feel like that your symptoms or that you’re having a lot of anxiety or a lot of fear and it’s really interfering with your daily life… sometimes what I say is that it prevents you from living, laughing, and loving… those important relationships in your life… it’s hurting your job performance, things like that… and you feel more on edge and tense, you know, it might be time to go and talk to somebody. We have a great crisis line at Seasons and it’s also a talk line. So if you need to talk to a mental health professional and you prefer to stay home, you can do that through our talk line.”
That talk line number is 844-345-4569.
Again those fact-based web sites are
cdc.gov
idph.iowa.gov
coronavirus.gov
