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The COVID-19 pandemic obviously exposes people from all walks of life to what potentially can be a dangerous virus with the potential for causing severe illness in some cases. Bear in mind that most people that contract the coronavirus have minimal symptoms and some individuals don’t have symptoms at all. In addition to the physical health risks associated with the coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic is also capable of causing people what may prove to be serious emotional challenges as well, including anxiety and depression. There are some important strategies you can employ to deal with anxiety, depression, and other emotional issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. These strategies include what best can be called putting yourself on a media and social media diet.
Media, Social Media, and Anxiety in the Era of COVID-19
According to the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “over-accessing” news media and social media is arising as a major cause of unnecessarily enhanced stress during the COVID-19 health crisis. As a result, a growing number of people are experiencing clinical anxiety and clinical depression as a consequence.
Turning first to the need for a news media diet, some media outlets have historically made a practice of presenting news and commentary in an unnecessarily sensational manner. While it may a good practice to boost ratings, overhyping the news can have harmful side effects, particularly when people from all walks of life are already dealing with the strains and stresses of living a vastly altered manner of living.
In addition, even if many media outlets are making best efforts to report the news as accurately as possible, in these relatively early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything is on shifting sands. In addition, as is the case with any event or incident of note, there is a considerable amount of misinformation associated with the COVIC-19, bad “data” that can nonetheless get swept up in a news cycle (knowingly or unknowingly).
With these facts and factors in mind, spending too much time taking in the offerings of the news media can cause even the most stoic of individuals to experience seriously negative emotional and psychological responses, including anxiety and depression.
If the news media has the capacity to unnecessarily ramp up emotions, social media has that propensity in proverbial spades. Thus, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a social media diet is advisable as well. The Director-General of the World Health Organization recommends checking the news from reliable sources twice during the course of the day. What this means is that you access a news source that has an established reputation for reliability and independence. You do not dwell taking in media reports for an extended period of time. Indeed, a person oftentimes can collect and consider the latest developments by connecting with a reliable news source for a matter of about 15 minutes at two different times during the course of any given day.
There is an important caveat when it comes to a social media diet during this health crisis. Social media platforms have the ability to provide a much needed and potentially healthy connection between people during these extended periods of physical distancing and stay at home directives that we all encounter. Thus, when it comes to a social media diet, a typical person doesn’t want to cut out social media altogether.
Using the diet analogy, if you need to trim the weight on the physical side of your life, that doesn’t mean you stop eating altogether. Doing so would be most unhealthy. Rather, you eliminate those things that are making you less well, less healthy. You can continue to access those elements of social media that allow you the ability to maintain friendly contact with primary loved ones in your life – and, at least for the time being, you can close the door to the rest.
Other Essential Strategies to Deal With Anxiety and Other Emotional Issues
In closing, there are also some other essential strategies you can take advantage of as a means of addressing anxiety and other emotional and psychological issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, if you learn that someone who contracted the coronavirus has been in your home, you understandably worry that the individual may have “shed” the virus on objects in your home. This certainly can create a physically unsafe situation. However, it can also create an emotionally and psychologically challenging one as your anxiety level rises worrying about the prospect of getting infected with COVID-19 in your own home.
If you face such a scenario, your physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing can be protected by engaging the professional services of a reputable, experienced infectious disease cleanup company serving the homes and business in your community.
