Are You Feeling Overwhelmed by COVID-19 Stress?

 By: Megan Brewer IMH

 

Take a moment to pause where you are. In the midst of countless articles, news updates, Facebook predictions and empty grocery store shelves, it can feel almost impossible to stop moving, thinking and planning.

Before you read on, take 3 deep breaths—the type that fill up your lungs completely. Notice what is happening in your mind and in your body. This may be the first time you’ve done that today.

Now let’s read on.

The fear and anxiety swirling around the unpredictable future of the Coronavirus can feel like an ever-increasing spiral. Just as you’ve read the latest update, rethought next week’s schedule and bought a few more supplies, a new round of news articles appear on your phone and you start the whole process over again. Only now the news is slightly worse and there is a bit more anxiety than the time before. This has been my own experience as I learn to regulate the amount of information I absorb and learn to notice how it impacts my own internal world.

This cycle can cause different reactions in each person depending on how they usually respond to stress. If your body and brain have learned over time to deal with stressful situations, your response to the current growing health crisis will most likely be the same. When feeling overwhelmed, your emotions may get dysregulated causing you to feel hyper-aroused—feeling anxious, panicked, overwhelmed and angry; or they may move in the other direction and cause you to feel hypo-aroused—feeling complacent, and like your brain and body start to shut down, go numb and pull away from what is happening around you.

Anxious and Overwhelmed:

Those whose internal world tends to move towards feeling overwhelmed and anxious will feel the intensity of their anxiety growing with each new news statistic and, as anxiety is designed to do, this will move them to action. Such action includes:

• More contingency planning 
• Heading to the store for more supplies
• Searching the internet every hour for new updates
• Getting more easily irritated or angry
• Possibly taking more shallow breaths than normal  

Let’s keep in mind that our brain and body were designed to snap us into action in the face of a threat. Anxiety and fear are built-in alarm systems to let you know when something important needs your attention. So being informed, having a plan for the next couple of weeks and taking precautions are all good things—up to a certain point. 

Shutting Down:

For those whose internal world moves more towards shutting down and numbing out when feeling stressed and overwhelmed, you may notice:

• Your feelings start to shut down with each new news update 
• Instead of flying into a panic or running to the store, you begin to ignore warnings and may even stop reading the news altogether
• You start feeling that in a small way, things around you are not real
• It may feel safer to try and feel as little as possible in the face of mounting tension

This is also a strategy your brain and body are using to attempt to keep you safe and maybe somewhere in your past experience, this was far safer for you than expressing what you felt and having permission to do something about it. However, this also cuts you off from thoughts and feelings that are necessary to keep you engaged to care for your own wellbeing and that of those around you.

Both ways of responding to stress and chaos are built-in options for our nervous systems. But how do you know when they become detrimental to your wellbeing? Understanding when our response to a situation crosses over a line that is no longer healthy for us will be similar but different for each person. It is important to know when your body and brain have entered a state of dysregulated emotions that is counterproductive and keeps you from accessing what you need internally to work through the current crisis.   

When we are dysregulated emotionally, our bodies follow suit: 

• You may notice your breathing getting more shallow
• Your heart may start racing faster
• It may be more difficult to focus and to sit still 
• Your stomach may feel queasy or upset
• The muscles in your shoulders and neck might feel tighter
• For people with chronic pain and illness, you may notice the symptoms of your illness or chronic pain condition increase and become more easily triggered during this time
• You may notice you are losing touch with what your body is aware of

When do you notice your body responding to stress? Is it after a new news cycle? After a conversation with a family member? When looking in the pantry and wondering if you have enough supplies? 

Notice what these responses communicate to you. Without interpretation, these responses are limited to sensations felt in the body. But they are being felt for a reason and the reason has a lot to tell us. 

Notice what happens if you take a few deep breaths into the places in your body where you are experiencing the sensations. Does that give you a little more space to notice what is happening inside of you? Notice what emotions come up. What are some safe ways to express those emotions? You could talk to a trusted friend, journal what you feel, express them creatively through art, or maybe just give yourself permission to feel them without accusation.

Notice the thoughts that come with the emotions

Along with noticing how your body is responding to the current situation, notice what happens in your thoughts. What are you hearing as your thoughts move through your mind each time you read a new news statistic? They may be something like:

• “I don’t have what I need, and I can’t do anything about it”
• “I’m alone in this” 
• “I can’t provide safety for loved ones”
• “This will never get better”

I wonder if any of the thoughts you identify sound familiar to you. Where have you heard this before? Whose voice does that sound like? What happens in your body when you have one of those thoughts? How does it impact your stress level?

Chances are, Stressful and damaging thoughts you may be having during this season of the Coronavirus are ones you are quite familiar with. What would it be like to risk challenging the narrative of these thoughts and identify what is untrue about them? What if you reframed them to be closer to what is true, such as: 

• “There are things I still need, but I can think through ways to get what I need”
• “I feel alone in this, and when I do, I can reach out to someone for help and encouragement”
• “It is difficult to feel like I don’t have control of keeping people safe, but I can only do what I am able and can still pray for them, call them and encourage them”
• “This feels overwhelming right now, but it will not last forever”

It is understandably easy to feel out of control in the midst of a national health crisis because there really are many factors that are beyond our ability to control them. But in the midst of all that we cannot control there are the things that we can control, including yourself and your response to what you are experiencing. Give yourself some space every day to sit quietly and check in with how your brain and body are being impacted by the situation around you. This will begin to help you learn how to regulate your brain and body and then how to respond in ways that are healthy and helpful.

To schedule an appointment with Megan Brewer,

Please call our office at 407-647-7005.

www.lifeworksgroup.org