Remote learning, record hospitalizations, vaccine mandates, business closures, death data, crime, wildfires, rising sea levels, supply shortages, fuel prices, and So. Much. Change.
“People are very anxious right now,” said Deb Ingram, manager of spiritual care at Edward Hospital in Naperville. “Folks have an increased anxiety around the way COVID is impacting our lives, a sense of not feeling safe on a daily basis.”
Way back in 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow created his hierarchy of needs, with the most fundamental, physiological and safety, forming the base of his pyramid.
“If we’re living in an environment where we’re all questioning our safety on a daily basis, how could that not be anxiety inducing?” Ingram said. “Safety is foundational.”
In addition, she said, many of us are grieving loss — the loss of a loved one, a job or normalcy in our daily lives.
“Everything is different now. I imagine there were a lot of experiences of grieving coming out of the holidays. Not being able to gather and celebrate,” she said.
“We think about grief not just in the context of the death of someone we care about but as it relates to loss in general. A person may lose their job and there’s grief. A friendship or important relationship ends and grieving can occur. Grieving can even occur in a joyous event – sending a child off to college or a child getting married,” she said.
“Grief can come in many shapes and forms. I would say that I think COVID has created a space in which many of us are grieving what we once thought of as normal,” she added.
It’s important to note, Ingram said, that grief is not linear, it’s not a process of checking off boxes.
“Grief is a journey. We may feel very angry for a while and then feel sad and then we may cycle back through anger. And that’s OK,” she said.
For grief support programs, check with local churches and hospitals, she said.
Dr. Joseph Troiani, director of behavioral health programs at the Will County Health Department, said our collective heightened anxiety is “fed by the unknown and there are a lot of unknowns these days.”
“People are waiting for this (COVID) to be done and over with and just when we think it’s done and over with, it pops up again. There’s this sense of impending doom, of when’s the other shoe gonna fall?” he said.
COVID has been a major disruption in our lives manifested by sleep deprivation, excessive worry and excessive fear — all leading to a sense of a loss of control, Troiani said.
Now, he said, experts are talking about living with COVID, instead of waiting for it to be over.
“So we need to get control of it. We do that by minimizing our risks, by getting our vaccines, wearing a mask, keeping social distance, by basically washing our hands and keeping them away from our face,” Troiani said. “So we’re not out of control. We do have control. We have control of managing our risks and minimizing them.”
That, he said, is an empowering approach: “Instead of COVID running my life, I’m managing COVID.”
“We’ve had a lot of inconveniences but inconveniences don’t ruin your life,” he said. Isolation, however, does have a psychological effect on people, particularly kids, he said.
On the plus side, book sales are up, interest in hobbies is up, interest in nature and gardening is up. COVID is presenting other kinds of opportunities, many of which have a calming effect on us.
Relief also comes from reframing the narrative to acknowledge gratitude. “Because of COVID, I’m home more, I’m reading more, I’m doing things that interest me.”
Melissa Gall teaches yoga at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and at The Yoga Life Center in Mokena. She also teaches Yoga for Anxiety at the Tinley Park Park District.
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“Relaxing is a skill,” she said. “Today, some people don’t even know what that is.”
She created Yoga for Anxiety specifically to counter the effects of COVID, to help people learn how to relax and soothe that overactive mind.
Tools include breathing exercises, meditation resources and tips for sleeping without worrying about tomorrow. You can follow Gall, who is also a certified personal trainer, on Instagram (missyogibee).
“Our brains are short-triggered now. We’re constantly in a state of stress, of fight or flight. We release negative emotions from that stimulus,” she said. “Your body doesn’t know if you’re being chased by a wooly mammoth or if somebody cut you off in traffic. You get the same physiological response.”
And reliving that over and over takes a toll on your immune system, causing aches and pains, sickness, tension and tight muscles, she said. And it has many people up in the middle of the night.
“If I find myself going in a downward spiral, I will just sit and focus on my breath for a few minutes to stop the negative thought process and reset myself,” she said.
One strategy, she said, is belly breathing – put your hands on your belly, breathe in for a count of four, then relax and exhale for a count of four.
“If you’re focusing on your breath, you’re not thinking about other things,” Gall said. “It gets you out of your mind a little bit.”
The main principle of yoga, she said, is quieting the mind.
“A lot of suffering in life is created through thinking,” she said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, she kept a list of worries. After a month, she’d reread it and realize that 99% of the worst-case scenarios never came to be.
Another strategy, she said, is to create a negative-free bubble when you go out. Instead of responding to situations that induce fighting or complaining or anger, step away from them.
Gall also recommends downloading a meditation app, many of which are free.
“A lot of people are going on sleeping meds or anxiety meds but what they really need are the tools to relax,” she said. “We know what stress feels like but a lot of us don’t know what it feels like to relax.”
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.