coronavirus

Protecting Your Mental Health During COVID-19 Pandemic

NBCUniversal, Inc.

The coronavirus is not only impacting people physically, but mentally as well.

Researchers are predicting people will have an especially difficult time dealing with this pandemic and at the same time, psychologists are assuring that there is a way to cope.

“There’s a lot of information out there there’s a lot of worry out there,” said Marin Wellness Center Clinical Psychologist Dr. Robbin Rockett. 

Rockett says she sees an increase in anxiety because the virus dominates the airwaves, social media and even conversations. 

“Doing things that sort of give us a break from all of this unknown that we have going on and offer us things that fill our bucket up to sort of manage this really difficult time for all of us,” said Rockett. 

She suggests we take a break from the source of that anxiety and call a friend, FaceTime someone or bake someone a loaf of bread.

“A lot of that was the opioid epidemic, depths of despair, and also included an increase in depression and other mental illnesses,” said Stanford researcher Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. “I’m afraid that with the depth of the depression that I expect is coming they will see that return in spades.”

Rockett said everyone should keep in mind that there have been other traumatic events in everyone’s life that they have gotten through. But if anxiety levels become too consuming, health professionals are available to help cope and process what is going on.

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