Easing of Pandemic Lockdown -the Risks
During the pandemic not everyone has reacted to the impositions of lockdown in the same way. Some have even found it beneficial. For many people, however, it has led to them suffering serious harm to their physical and mental health. Increases in anxiety, depression and compulsive disorders have been widely registered across the world. Instances of […]
Pandemic and Lockdown – Healthy and Unhealthy Coping
Coping mechanisms or strategies enable us to respond and adapt to challenging circumstances such as created by the COVID pandemic and consequent lockdown. Generally life crises we face are not as encompassing and severe in their impact as is the case with the pandemic and the lockdown(s) that followed. Such events place our physical and […]
COVID-19 A Challenge for Families
The defensive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic not only take a toll on individuals they also put families under additional strain. This is intensified where families, sometimes including members of several generations, may be thrown together or separated in ways they had neither expected nor desired. The loss of a sense of control or choice in such […]
COVID-19 Coping with Depression
To suffer from depression is a significant challenge for anyone at the best of times. However, an already depressed person finding themselves in an environment such as the one determined by the COVID-19 pandemic will be at increased risk of the symptoms associated with this potentially life-threatening condition. In a sense depression is itself a form of […]
COVID-19 Coping with Anxiety
The circumstances surrounding the COVD-19 pandemic are tailor-made for heightening anxiety. People with chronic anxiety disorders will suffer disproportionately. Enforced isolation while being fed information that generally brings news of threats to life, to economic stability and social cohesion, as well as deep uncertainty about the future, will intensify anxiety. Even those who are fearful of social […]
COVID-19 Maintaining Recovery from Addiction
“Lockdown”, “social distancing”, “self-isolating”. The lexicon of the COVID-19 pandemic is now all too unhappily familiar. But how do you cope during this period if you are in recovery from addiction? While the severely restrictive measures are intended to keep people safe, isolation and disconnection are symptomatic of addiction and risk factors for relapse. Conversely, sustained participation in […]