How will a global pandemic change how we look after our mental health?

Up until now, my personal mental health challenges came from trauma and grief, baby loss and bereavement. It took six months after the loss of our little boy to be able to admit how low I was. During that time, I was receiving counselling, I was on a staged return to work. It was accepted that I was going through an incredibly difficult time due to our loss. Yet, because of the stigma that I felt around the feelings I was having, EVEN with all that support, I still didn’t feel I could tell those closest to me the reality of what was going through my head.

It was a throwaway comment to my grief counsellor that highlighted that my thought processes were harmful, which set me on the path to diagnoses and recovery. It’s why things like #mentalhealthawarenessweek and #maternalmentalhealthawareness are SO ESSENTIAL. So that people can share their experiences, their tools and techniques and to break down the taboo around mental health.

But, let’s make sure that these honest and open discussions don’t stop once these awareness weeks have finished.  It’s essential to continue having these conversations about mental wellness in the same way that you encourage each other to look after their physical wellbeing.

It starts with openness and acceptance.

At the moment we are experiencing a period of trauma, crisis and change; this pandemic is a trigger for mental health challenges. Even when we are safe at home and finding different ways to connect and communicate, there are stressors that didn’t exist before, despite certain pressures being removed. This pandemic is turning a mirror ourselves and our lives in a way that we could never have expected. I am having lots of conversations with people about how we can’t let life go back to the “normal” of before; many of us are already finding some health and work-life balance benefits to living in this new way, and want to keep them once lockdown lifts

It’s not just anecdotal though; I was really interested to read about a study from The Healthy Work Company who, during week seven on lockdown in the UK, have assessed the mental health of British workers.

Some of the key stats are quite telling:

Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) are seeing an improvement in mental health, including 8% that say they are “flourishing”; those that are most likely to say they are improving or flourishing”  are women, those that have children, and those that are over 45 years of age!

Those that feel like their mental health is improved included words like happy, relaxed, calm, peaceful and grateful when describing their emotional state.

However, we can’t exclude those that are suffering though, 32% said that their mental health is worse, whist 41% feel the same as before. For those that are experiencing a negative effects on their emotions, they are feeling lonely, anxious, frustrated, bored and stressed.

So, what does the study say about those that are finding this experience positive, and what can we learn from this for the future?  What can we do to feel like we are flourishing more frequently?

The report found that those who felt they were flourishing or that their mental health was improving had a few things in common. They:

• Had a grateful mindset
• Were using any free time they had (or perceived to have) to slow down, be more spiritual, and reconnect with their partners, friends and family.
• Felt they were more authentic and honest with their communication with friends and family
• Made time for old hobbies or picked up new ones
• Increased their activities; including exercise, video calls to just finding more ways to laugh!
• Reduced their news consumption
• Curated their social media
• Are aiming to work more flexibility once lock down lifts

This is not about layering a false sense of positives over what Is an awful situation. It’s an understanding of  what we can do, in a practical way, to help reduce the negative impact of this on our mental health.   Right now, I am asking us all to take a breath, be honest with ourselves and each other, and to not let ourselves slip back in the old habits and behaviours that don’t bring any values to our lives.

So, notice what helps, remove what doesn’t and take the first step in looking after your mental health the same way you look after your physical health.  Let’s take the experience of this global pandemic make some positive and life long changes to how we look after our WHOLE self.