Dear MDECOE and greater community,
Just when we were looking forward to a wonderful new year with increasing safety, the next pandemic surge arrived. And as we once again retreat with heightened protection, many of us are feeling anxiety and emotional exhaustion. “You don’t feel bad because something is wrong with you. You feel bad because it’s been bad,” is a statement from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times titled “With COVID surging again, here are eight tips to help with your Omicron anxiety.” So how can we proceed with an awareness of the ways that we are affected, and how can we cope and heal? The following information from this article may be of help:
1. There are real threats and imagined threats-Omicron is a real concern, especially given how contagious it is and if you have plans to be around other people. Make sure you’re responding to real threats and not getting overwhelmed by a story you read on Twitter that you’re not sure how to contextualize or an apocalyptic future drawn wholly from your imagination.
2. Identify your emotional triggers-A trigger is something that causes an emotional response. Are news stories with panic-inducing headlines a trigger for your anxiety? While it’s important to know the latest safety guidelines, you don’t need to spend hours consuming articles, podcasts, TV shows, and TikTok videos that tell you the same things. Instead, consider signing up for a newsletter from an organization you trust that gives you all the important highlights once a day. Understanding our triggers helps us see them for what they are, so we can better manage things that stress us out.
3. Notice the physical signs that you’re getting anxious-The days can be long and busy, and sometimes we don’t notice how much we’re affected by our day-to-day pressures. We might have past traumas we’ve been avoiding that are starting to cause problems. Sometimes it’s easier just to focus on the million things on our to-do lists. If we’re not careful, our bodies will tell us something is wrong by crashing. But if we pay closer attention, we can see the signs beforehand and remember to rest. So do you have a headache? Is there a tightness in your chest? Is your jaw sore because you haven’t noticed how much you’ve been clenching your teeth? Your body is sending you a signal, and you need to heed it.
4. Figure out your emotional cycles and patterns-According to psychologist Marlene Valter of the mental health services company AnaVault, when we perceive a threat, it activates our sympathetic nervous system, triggering a fight-or-flight response. Other parts of our brain shut down so we can cope with the stress in front of us. When this happens, “We link memories and emotions and thoughts to that danger,” Valter said. “So when we see something similar, we have learned to think that is a dangerous thing.” Sometimes the new danger is real. Other times, it’s an unhealthy habit, and we might be unnecessarily reacting to a past trauma. A common exercise used in cognitive behavioral therapy involves asking a client to identify unhelpful thoughts, patterns and behaviors. So think about times you’ve been anxious recently — what happened, what triggered it, how did you feel physically and emotionally, what did you do (or want to do), and what happened next? Once you identify the cycles, you can work to break the ones that lead to anxiety.
5. Think about whether different actions will give you more helpful results-There are many things we cannot change, such as the arrival of the Omicron variant. But sometimes we can change our actions to put ourselves in situations that are less worrisome. Get vaccinated (including your booster shot). The research is showing that the COVID-19 booster vaccine is your best protection against Omicron, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says all adults should get it. Get tested before you meet with people, especially if you’re going into high-risk situations or meeting with people in high-risk groups. Other actions to consider… get more sleep and exercise? Think about what you can do, instead of feeling overwhelmed by what you can’t.
6. How to manage your racing thoughts-Is there always an internal monologue in your head? Some people naturally have a more active, anxious mind than others. In a Psychology Today story titled “How to Tame Your Anxious Mind,” therapist Michelle P. Maidenberg said she likes to remind her clients that you have thoughts and feelings, but you are not your thoughts and feelings. There’s a difference between thinking something and acting upon it, she explained. Sometimes it helps just to observe the thoughts, assess them mindfully and let them pass without judging them. Maidenberg said that the struggle to get rid of unwelcome thoughts or wish them away can actually perpetuate an even more exhausting cycle “where we end up challenged by having thoughts about our thoughts, feelings about our feelings, thoughts about our feelings, and feelings about our thoughts.”Just like you wouldn’t love being in a time loop, beware of mind loops.“It can be challenging to have self-compassion when all of that ‘noise’ is surfacing, causing us to question, defend against, and desire to avoid ourselves,” she wrote.
7. Focus on what you can control and accept what you cannot-When licensed clinical social worker Courtney Tracy talked to The Times in August, the country was in a similar place regarding the pandemic, as the uncertainty surrounding the Delta variant threatened our return to normalcy. She emphasized the importance of knowing the difference between what you can and cannot control — and accepting that. “There isn’t really a way to get through this time period other than generally accepting that we are mortal, and that we exist on a planet that is uncertain and unprecedented things happen,” she said. “When we push away things that we wish were not happening, oftentimes we’re also pushing away the emotions attached to those things. As we accept what’s happening, we also open up the door to experience what we’re feeling about it, and that not only makes us move more in the direction towards healing but it also can prevent [us] being traumatized.”
8. Be kind to yourself-We’re about to enter our third year of the pandemic. You don’t feel bad because something is wrong with you. You feel bad because it’s been bad. You feel anxious because Omicron is anxiety-inducing. Figuring out how to manage your anxiety and which habits work best for you requires experimentation. Some things will work, some won’t. You’ll have setbacks. It’ll take time. Be patient with yourself. Also, some anxiety is good. It’s what causes us to pay attention, it protects us from danger, it motivates us, and it helps us have empathy for those around us.
To read more, please go to https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2021-12-22/omicron-anxiety-how-to-deal-with-it
For a list of many self-care options, please see our College of Education self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community:
https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
We will get through this time together with compassion and understanding.
Warmly,
Shari