Category: Daily Dose

To read the full article visit Mental Health America.

For many, the stressors continue to mount as the weeks go by. For many, distress about the election remains, and is now being compounded by rising COVID numbers as we prepare for the holiday season. This may very well lead to increased since of frustration, if not significant mental health challenges, for everyone and especially health care workers. To address this, President of the American Public Health Association Lisa Carlson and Past Chair of the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Johanna Hinman have summarized their advice to manage any concerns that arise. They start by outlining some unique contributors:

• Making the same recommendations over and over
• ”Shouting evidence-based advice into a political void”
• The advent of “armchair experts from unrelated fields” as trusted sources
• Working under a nationally disjointed response
• Seeing the missed opportunities
• Feeling “the wrath of a nation on the edge”
• Experiencing multiple crises at once
• Exhaustion

This can often lead to symptoms including:

• Feelings of fear, worry, numbness, or disbelief
• Changes in appetite
• Difficulty sleeping, concentrating or remembering
• Being easily frustrated
• Physical reactions such as increased tension and pain in the body, or headache
• Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or substances

So, what do we do?

• Ask for help
• Take breaks from the news
• Take care of ourselves by focusing on the basics (sleep, healthy food, exercise)
• Create structure and maintain routines
• Wind down and rest
• Take reasonable steps to protect ourselves, such as washing our hands often
• Connect with our community to stay grounded
• Get out into nature

Read the full article at Mental Health America.

It broke Jessica Murray’s heart that so many people in the St. Louis area were dying from the coronavirus and that they were being remembered less for who they were than as statistics of the pandemic, so she decided to do something about it.

In June, Murray began the website stlouiscovidmemorial.com to honor lives lost to COVID-19. She mostly relies on information she can glean online, including from obituaries and other news stories about the dead. Her site and Facebook page serve as memorials to the area’s pandemic victims, providing glimpses into their lives and deaths.

Murray said that moving forward, she’d like to work with other memorial sites around the country to perhaps start a national day of remembrance.

She funds her effort with her own money and has no plans to solicit donations.

“I don’t know what I would do with it because there’s nothing that I need now except more time to tell better stories or put more faces behind these numbers,” she said.

Read more of Ms. Murray’s efforts at APNews.com.

While the ultimate goal is to create an environment where wellness is the norm and stress is at a steady low, we must recognize that difficult things will happen from time to time and we will need immediate strategies to help us respond in effective ways. As COVID cases continue to rise again and the outcome of the most recent election remains in question, now may be a good time to review some of these as-needed skills for in the moment stress caused by situations you cannot escape. Offered by Tara Parker-Pope, here are 10 ways to help manage distress through challenging times:

• Interrupt yourself – As you feel your anxiety level rising, try to practice “self interruption.” Go for a walk. Call a friend. Run an errand. Just move your body and become aware of your breathing.
  
• Focus on your feet – When you feel your stress level rising, try this quick calming exercise from Dr. Judson A. Brewer, director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. Take a moment to focus on your feet. You can do this standing or sitting, with your feet on the ground. How do they feel? Are they warm or cold? Are they tingly? Moist or dry? Wiggle your toes. Feel the soles of your feet. Feel your heels connecting with your shoes and the ground beneath you.
  
• Move for 3 minutes – It just takes a short burst of exercise — three minutes to be exact — to improve your mood, said Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University whose latest book is “The Joy of Movement.” Do jumping jacks. Stand and box. Do wall push-ups. Dance.
  
• Tackle a home project – Still working from home? Get rid of clutter, make a scrapbook, get a new comforter, hang artwork. Anything you do where you take an action that allows you to connect, whether consciously or not, with this idea that there’s a future you’re moving toward, that’s like a hope intervention. It’s something you’re doing now to look after your future self.”
  
• Try five-finger breathing– Step 1. Hold your hand in front of you, fingers spread. Step 2. Using your index finger on the opposite hand, start tracing the outline of your extended hand, starting at the wrist, moving up the pinkie finger. Step 3. As you trace up your pinkie, breathe in. As you trace down your pinkie, breathe out. Trace up your ring finger and breathe in. Trace down your ring finger and breathe out. Step 4. Continue finger by finger until you’ve traced your entire hand. Now reverse the process and trace from your thumb back to your pinkie, making sure to inhale as you trace up, and exhale as you trace down.
  
• Connect with nature – Spend time outside. Watch birds. Wander amid the trees. Take a fresh look at the vistas and objects around you during an “awe walk.” Recent research shows that consciously taking in the wonders of nature amplifies the mental health benefits of walking.
  
• Rediscover your diaphragm – Many of us are vertical breathers: When we breathe, our shoulders rise and fall, and we’re not engaging our diaphragm. To better relax, learn to be a horizontal breather. Inhale and push your belly out, which means you’re using your diaphragm. Exhale and your middle relaxes.
  
• Enjoy distractions – Give your mind a break by watching this cat comfort a nervous dog, or check out the jellyfish cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You’ll find more fun diversions on our new interactive Election Distractor, including a digital stress ball, a virtual emotional support dog and Donald J. McNeil Jr., the Times’s infectious disease reporter, giving you optimistic news about the coronavirus vaccine.
  
• Unleash the aromatics – Take a lavender foot bath, burn a scented candle or spritz the air with orange aromatherapy. It’s only a temporary reprieve, but it just might help get you through election night.
  
• Accept the present moment – Accepting the result of the election doesn’t mean giving up if things don’t go your way. In fact, you’ll be more effective at pursuing change if you accept the situation. “Our anxiety comes from the desire to have things be different,” said Ms. Williams. “There’s going to be the day after the election. And the day after that. We need to be present to what is, regardless of the outcome you want.” Thinking about history and those who have faced seemingly insurmountable hardship in the past can help you gain perspective, accept current events and make plans to pursue change.

Read the full article at the New York Times

Carol McCarthy of Palmyra New Jersey loves Halloween, and she will not let COVID-19 stop that. “I’m going a little more over the top than usual. There’s something about this year that I have to try a little harder to keep the magic going.”

This year, Carol will be scattering candy at social distances across her front yard via PVC piping and placing some in Easter egg containers to keep the tradition alive while keeping everyone safe, and this is following a national trend. A church near Cincinnati is offering to hand treats to drive-by families, and you can visit a haunted house has become a haunted drive-thru in San Francisco.

This favorite annual American festivity is being tested by the pandemic, and people are rising to the challenge for trick-or-treating that’s both safe and fun during a pandemic.

Read more about the creative ways that folks are keeping Halloween safe and fun this year at APNews.com.

2020 has been an uncertain and stressful year. COVID-19, and its many consequential effects, have led to some very difficult moments. The loss of loved ones, livelihoods and freedoms that we take for granted have been difficult to bear. It has been painful to watch socially unjust events unfold and witness suffering on a seemingly endless news cycle. All this combined with a contentious election — it’s fair to say that 2020 has impacted us all.

Christina Bott at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers the following guidance for building resilience during a difficult year. Interested? Read the full article at NAMI.org.

• Stay Connected. Connections with friends and family have helped boost us through the pandemic, and they continue to be important to mental well-being. Foster those relationships, whether face-to-face, on a video call or with a phone call. Staying connected to others improves our own capacity for compassion, with the benefit of mutual support. 
  
• Reframe your thoughts. Feeling a sense of control can often reduce worry and stress. One way to accomplish this is by reframing your thoughts in a positive way. Take a few deep breaths, think over the situation and how you feel, then challenge your thoughts in a way that focuses on the positive. Whether it’s counterproductive thoughts, or how stressors affect you, breaking the cycle of pessimism helps improve your outlook.
  
• Avoid negativity. Limit your media exposure, or restrict it to positive and uplifting sources. The added tension from a constant cycle of bad news and negativity can prompt a sense of threat, leading to anxious feelings. 
  
• Express gratitude. Think of something different each day that you’re thankful for. Recognizing what you can appreciate is beneficial to stress management.
  
• Take care of your health. Improving your physical health strengthens your mental health, and can start with a few small steps toward your goals.
  
• Spend time on your interests. Make it a point to cultivate your interests and hobbies. Whether you enjoy games, creative pursuits or hands-on activities, even a few minutes dedicated to these can be restorative. If you’re not sure where to start, think of topics that you find interesting and then explore possibilities.
  
• Make note of what helps and then build on it. Identify the positive methods that you already use to manage stress and anxiety. As an example, if your go-to coping tools are deep breathing and stretching, consider adding a brisk walk or trying yoga. These may help calm anxiety and offer further relief. 
  
• Ask for help when you need it. As you work on building resilience, don’t forget that you’re not alone. When the anxiety, sadness or other symptoms become overwhelming, it’s time to reach out for help.

Suicides are on the rise among Japanese teens and that worries 21-year-old Koki Ozora, who grew up depressed and lonely.

His nonprofit “Anata no Ibasho,” or “A Place for You,” is run entirely by volunteers. It offers a 24-hour text-messaging service for those seeking a sympathetic ear, promising to answer every request — within five seconds for urgent ones.

The online Japanese-language chat service has grown since March to 500 volunteers, many living abroad in different time zones to provide counseling during those hours when the need for suicide prevention runs highest, between 10 p.m. and the break of dawn.

These individuals have begun compiling data from Anata no Ibasho for a research project. They hope to pursue graduate studies in the U.K., a world leader in tackling the public health issue, with a minister for loneliness since 2018. But his biggest dream is to have a happy family. “I never had that,” he said. “There is a father, and there is a mother. The children are happy and can do whatever they want. It’s an everyday family. But, if anything, that is what I want the most.”

Read more at APNews.com.

At the moment, stress is ubiquitous. Even if you are not managing sadness or anxiety at baseline, concerns related to COVID, upcoming elections, social unrest, and everything else that has come to the forefront in 2020 has people more stressed than ever. As such, we need to understand the impact of stress on mental health. But as Dr. Ashley Zucker of Kaiser Permanente’s Fontana Medical Center in Southern California highlights, we need to understand the ways in which people automatically associate stress with mental health issues. She says that “people react differently to stress, but if that stress or anxiety goes untreated over a long period of time, it can affect a person’s total health — mind, body and spirit.” She goes on to note that “Research has shown that when the stress hormone is activated, that ‘fight or flight’ response initially helps a person cope with the situation, but in the long run, it can impact their psychological and physical health.”

So, what do we do?

Dr. Zucker recommends some healthy detachment “because worrying about the result is not going to change anything.” Apart from that, remaining in communication with each other is vital, focusing equally on what is going right and what is going wrong. 

Limiting news coverage is also vital. Next time you feel compelled to tune into the news or check your favorite news website, consider first engaging in a mindfulness-based exercise first. This may curb the desire to seek out more news or at least put you in a better state to receive the news.

Some medical experts suggest setting boundaries for political conversations. Self-care can also be key — eating healthy, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep helps.

Want to learn more? Check out this helpful article at MedLine.com,