There is no doubt that Covid-19 is continuing to affect mental health. Mental health around Covid is making headlines, but we’re still sitting on it.
For those who have concerns about getting into their lives, their everyday decisions continue to be affected between whether they should stay home, or they should go out. In the background, the virus is still telling us it’s not done.
Learning to navigate Covid-19
In the absence of relatable experiences, learning to navigate erratic induced behaviour brought about through stress and fear is evident; routine or innocuous events have become even more demanding on our cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes. While we may not always understand fully, we are continuing to expend energy to try to understand and cope with Covid-19.
It isn’t difficult to understand the enormity of society’s stress-related response. Whilst our responses can be sometimes unsettling, it is important to stand back and think about our reactions and how our reactions are affecting others, particularly those who are high risk and vulnerable.
Applying common sense
Where we continue to be governed by social norms, expectations, or contextual influences, it is important to apply common sense when making decisions. Instead of picking sides, we need to entertain a range of possibilities so that we can respond to situations, or confront unexpected emotions.
Changing our lifestyles around the pandemic can help bring about calmness, so that we can gain control of our emotions. As we continue to navigate Covid, the clearer and stronger the message around what constitutes safe behaviour, the more the public can pay attention and the greater the chances of behaviour change.
Adopting helpful behaviour
It is important to adopt helpful behaviour that protects, whether it's wearing a mask, social distancing, or sanitising our hands. It is important to endorse positive attitudes towards behaviour change. Politicians and leaders also need to normalise the behaviour they wish to see, to mitigate stress, which is otherwise not good for anyone.
Source: https://lens.monash.edu/
If we've learned anything about people's behaviour in the pandemic, it's that we don't really know much about it. All sorts of assumptions were made and most have been proved to be wrong.
I get that these are unprecedented times but some peoples selfishness around their behaviour is staggering. Infection rates are incomprehensible. In the UK there are more thank 100,000 new cases every day and in London 1 in 20 have Covid.
While the vaccination programme has been hugely successful in breaking the link between infection and really serious cases, it's as if catching the virus is 'everyday' something to be expected.
Wearing masks, washing hands and keeping a distance seem pretty straightforward to me to help keep us all safe. It's not rocket science!
I agree. Regardless of what we're being told, we should go with our common sense. The UK government seem to be putting party before politics.
We're living with a virus that doesn't care whose lives it touches. Even if you've taken the vaccine and you are double jabbed, you can still catch and pass the virus on to others.
It is still possible to catch Covid-19 with the booster, although if you do catch the virus after you've had the booster, you're less likely to get seriously ill.
It is the physical precautionary measures that will continue to keep us safe. Medical masks are good, but if you can get hold of FFP2 masks those will protect you better.
Far too many people aren't taking Covid very seriously, which is the main reason why this is dragging out so long. People seem to be acting like this isn't as extreme, as it really is which is quite ridiculous, considering the science is pretty clear.
My mother was an extreme hypochondriac, so I grew up in a dysfunctional world, which is why it's not fazing me as much as it seems to be fazing others.
We can only hope that people will finally smarten up and do the right thing.
Thanks Randy. With autism I would be lying if I said I wasn't struggling to get my head around the virus. In the early days, I felt panicked and lived with fear.
I agree with you. It is important to work to what we know about the virus and take the necessary precautionary measures. It means we not only keep ourselves safe, but it's helping others too.
Wearing a mask, sanitising and keeping our distance will go some way to help reduce Covid and its effects. We should all be doing it.