Transcription:
Staying Sane During Social Distancing

Introduction: This is the Bryan Health Podcast on COVID-19 dated March 23rd, 2020. There's a spirit at Bryan Health, a passion that says we can make it better, stronger to raise our kids, to build our future, to move forward together. It's time for another Bryan Health podcast. Here's Melanie Cole.

Melanie Cole: Welcome. This is the Bryan Health podcast. I'm Melanie Cole and today we're discussing how daily mental wellness self care is vital during this pandemic of COVID-19. Joining me is Dr. Dave Miers. He's the Counseling and Program Development Manager for Mental Health Services at Bryan Medical Center. Dr. Miers, it's a pleasure to have you on right now. Before we get into some usable tips, what's the difference between chronic stress and acute stress, and what are we experiencing right now?

Dr. Miers: It's important that everybody realize that stress is normal. And I think what some folks are realizing right now is obviously with everything that's going on is everybody's feeling just a little bit on edge with just the daily changes that are going on and that some level of anxiety is normal. And in fact it's good in a sense that it alerts us to threats that then motivate us to take care of ourselves. But it's when that stress becomes chronic and that it starts pulling us down and it starts impacting our daily routine to where we're not taking care of ourselves to when then it becomes, you know, acute and chronic that it's something that we need to take care of and seek professional help

Host: For those listening, how do we compartmentalize our fears and separate reality from what's actually occurring because we are so scared, Dr. Miers and so many people are not sure what's going to happen from one day to the next. How do we sort this out for ourselves so that we don't start to panic?

Dr. Miers: Well I think it's important that we limit our exposure to what we are hearing and listening to out there. As far as the information, I think it's important that we stay connected and that we get the information about what's happening with COVID-19, but that there's so much information out there that we don't want to become over informed. And that's where the anxiety comes from sometimes is that we just hear so much and that we're not sure, well what do I believe? What information is true, what is not true? And we become scared. And so it's to get the information that we need to know to stay safe, you know, in our community. But then to practice relaxing and breathing. I mean we need to take breaks during the day and to stay positive. You know, it's, might be easy for me to say that, but it can be easy. I mean we need to sit back and look at, well, what are the positive things that I can take control of or that I do have control of my life right now? And focus on those positive things. And then even just maybe to start writing those down and keep a list of, gosh, what are, what are the things that I do have control over that are going for me that are positive? That's the first thing.

Host: And that's two real usable tips right there to write down our positives and to take a break from some of the onslaught of news, whether it's Twitter, Facebook, whatever, social media to take a bit of a break from that. That's great advice. Now some people experience panic attacks. What if we feel like we're doing all of those things, but we're losing it a little? What can we do right then and right there if sometimes it's just so overwhelming that we feel like it's about to hit us hard?

Dr. Miers: Well, it's important that we try to do some things that we like to do. So it's important that we do, you know, in terms of taking a break that it's, you know, it's okay to take a walk if we can do some exercise in the basement or do some things that you just get ourselves away from the information or just away from the things that we're reading. Folks generally like to go to the, you know, to the gym and those types of things to work out. Well, obviously we can't do that right now, but there are a lot of online exercise routines and things that some of the places are putting out. I mean those are important things that we, that we should be trying cause exercise your diet and your sleep are very, very important. Those are kind of the big three things that we always have to try to maintain. But we feel that, you know, we're trying to deep breathing, we're trying to positive thinking. We're trying the social connection through reaching out to those that we, our friends and our family.

Those are important, but it's important to take that even a step further and to open up to somebody that we can trust and to share our feelings with somebody that we trust, that can help with those panic, you know, the panic and the feelings that we're having. But if that's not helping and we just feel like I should, this is a crisis and I just don't know what to do, then it is important then that you do reach out for help. You know, here at the Bryan Medical Center, our mental health emergency room, we're available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for somebody who's in a mental health crisis that where we help determine if hospitalization is needed. If somebody is in a mental health crisis and a danger to self or others. The 1-800-273-8255 the national suicide helpline, you know, or 911. Those are immediate resources for somebody who are in immediate crisis.

Host: Well, thank you for that answer, Dr. Miers. And another thing, people are being quarantined. So there's the social isolation. You mentioned that reaching out to family, but we're being quarantined with their kids in some respects. Some people and sometimes families start to fight. They're letting the stress get to them. And what can we do about that? Because we're all in close quarters and for quite a long time?

Dr. Miers: Well, it's important to again, to stay connected so that we try to get creative with some of the things that we're doing with, you know, reaching out to family members through different social media. Those types of things is important, you should continue to do that, or over the phone. Have some fun, watch a movie, do things around the house that maybe normally wouldn't be doing since now you are kind of quarantined at home. Doing that exercise, you know, and do the exercise as a family. But often what happens again with kids, that kids are going to have questions. So it's important to answer those questions, you know, have those daily discussions and go over those questions that your children do have because we don't want to raise fear, but we also don't want questions to go on unanswered. So we want to be able to answer those but to go over the facts but don't go into too much detail because we want to reassure to our kids that they are safe, that you know, the community is safe.

And that the healthcare providers and others in the community are doing everything that they can in their power to make our world and our community as safe as possible, to try to help alleviate any stress that they, you know, that they're having. Limit the media exposure for our kids as much as we can. But one of the biggest things is to keep a structure, you know, with school being out in most places, but going to the online learning, it's important to try to keep up a routine. Just kind of like if they were in school and to have like Monday through Friday to have a kind of a school day built into your day at home to where they are learning online. But with some built in breaks and, but then to have your child participate in that development of that routine schedule so that they have, you know, they buy into that scheduling.

Host: And that's a really good idea. Now, you mentioned sleep before. What if our sleep problems are contributing to our stress or conversely, our stress is keeping us from sleeping. I sleep well, Dr. Miers, but not right now. What can we do about that?

Dr. Miers: Yeah, it's definitely important that we keep an eye on our, on our sleep and our diets. A couple of the key symptoms that folks might start seeing is that, gosh, I'm not sleeping very well or that I'm sleeping all the time or that I'm eating too much or I just don't feel like I have an appetite at all. And or I'm becoming more irritable or I feel that stress, just don't feel myself, and a lot of people are working from home and you start seeing these symptoms and that goes on for a period of two weeks or more. Then it is important that you reach out and that you do ask for an evaluation from a medical professional because then that could be leading into symptoms of a diagnosable depression or anxiety. And if you're not quite sure is my sleep issues something more than just sleep issues? You know, are there other symptoms going on there? You know, I suggest people go onto our online website, www.bryanhealth.org and take an online screening. We have online screenings for depression, anxiety, alcohol use, all kinds of different types of screenings that we do have on our website. It's not a diagnosis, but again, it's a bunch of questions that you can take and even if you are noticing these sleep issues and appetite changes in your child, in your youth, you can go online and take these questions. Especially for the depression one as if you were answering it on your observations of your youth. And at the end of the screening it tells you whether or not the signs and symptoms are there for that particular mental illness. And then it gives you instructions on what the next steps are to take to reach out for help.

Host: That's such great information, Dr. Miers, as we wrap up, help us to put this all into perspective, to manage our expectations for quarantine, our rising stress levels and the fact that this seems to be worldwide stress. It's different when each of us are experiencing our own stress, but right now it feels like the rest of the world is experiencing it too. Help us to put this all into perspective and give us your best advice for managing our stress in these uncertain times.

Dr. Miers: Well, we are all in this together and we're all going to get through this together. The world is going to be a better place and we all have to stay positive. It is important that we maintain a positive attitude and then we all work together and support each other. And if we see somebody that we're reaching out to on a social connection that we're concerned about them, that we encourage them to get, you know, get connected and get some help as if we were struggling, we'd want them to connect us and make sure that we are getting help. So just as if we were struggling physically, it's important that we connect folks if they're struggling mentally. A mental illness and mental wellness is just as important as our physical health and our physical wellness. Individuals outside of the crisis, you know, struggle with, with a mental illness and inside of a crisis such as what we're in right now. Everybody's kind of experiencing the stress and we want to make sure that as I mentioned earlier, stress is normal. Anxiety is normal, but that we want folks to identify when it is becoming, you know, outside of that normal range and that we get folks connected to the resources that can help them.

Host: Thank you so much, Dr. Miers. It's such important information right now for all of us to hear. If you're overwhelmed emotions like sadness, depression, or anxiety, or you feel like you might want to harm yourself, please call the national suicide helpline at 1 800-273-8255. Or know the Bryan Health Mental Health Emergency Department is available 24 seven to determine if you need hospitalization for your mental health symptoms. You can also visit our website to take the screening that Dr. Miers was discussing at bryanhealth.org for more information. That concludes this episode. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.