Winter is Coming: Mental Health in a Pandemic
As the days get darker and we head into winter, many of us may notice ourselves feeling a dip in our energy, mood, or overall sense of well-being. Additionally, these feelings may be compounded in the face of also adjusting to work and/or school full time and in person, after a year and a half navigating the stressors of a global pandemic!
As the winter season settles around us, we encourage you to keep the following suggestions in mind:
Be kind to yourself. Overwhelm and exhaustion are a natural response to chronic stress. Remember, we are all doing our best under circumstances that have led to a global re-imagining of our work, social and family lives, and routines.
Care for yourself with intention. Try to identify two or three specific activities or behaviors that help you maintain your sense of balance, allow you to feel present, or bring you joy, and see if you can integrate them into your daily schedule.
These practices will not erase the impacts of multiple compounding life stressors, many of which may be out of your control. However, these practices will create habits that serve as anchors to support your mental, emotional, and physical well-being as you continue to face those stressors.
Request and Receive. In addition to considering ways of caring for yourself, we urge you to consider specific ways of accessing care from others, even if it feels unfamiliar or awkward. Who in your life can you confide in? What community can you plug into with more intention? Is there a request you have been putting off making to your partner, your friend, your boss?
Did you identify any supports you can access immediately? If so, challenge yourself to reach out and take that step!
Build your support system. What if you’re not sure where to turn to immediately? Or what if your current support system is not able to meet your care needs? You may recognize the need to begin to build new structures of support around you, as well as to mourn supports that have not been available to you in the past. The lack of those supports may account for some of the feelings of overwhelm and fatigue you have been feeling!
Consider compiling a written list of possible resources to engage. What support systems might you be unaware of, downplaying, overlooking, or underutilizing? These support systems may be individual relationships, local groups or communities, medical and mental health providers, and systems and institutions.
Identify one step you can take to connect with a new support- it might be sending a text message to a friend you have drifted apart from, setting up an intake appointment with a new provider, or attending a community organization event.
Honor your experience. Many of us have experienced trauma and loss over the past couple of years. Many of us have experienced systems failing us. And for many of us, the past couple of years have layered upon and exacerbated other experiences of marginalization. Caring for ourselves and reaching out for care may both be radical acts that demand a lot of effort and energy. Allow yourself the dignity of acknowledging your own experiences.
Let it snowball. Relationships take time to build and strengthen- and this goes for our relationship with ourselves as well as our relationships with other people and groups! Each concrete act of self-care, and each effort to engage with and build your support system, may feel small and even insignificant at first, and you may also experience disappointment with some of the efforts you make. This is to be expected! The effects of your self-care and the effects of feeling connected and supported will appear with time, as you continue to take small steps one after the other.
While we are often encouraged to care for ourselves, it is critical that we also feel supported as we navigate our lives. Building these structures of support can take time and energy, but is vital to supporting our well-being in a more sustainable way!
We hope these tips and reminders bring comfort and warmth in the months ahead.
