Five ways to deal with lockdown stress

STRESS caused by the lockdown and accompanying uncertainty is a threat to your health no matter how strong or pragmatic you are.

This is according to Zululand clinical psychologist, Shelley Hall, who shares five reasons why dealing with lockdown stress is important.

It lowers one’s immune response

Ongoing stress is known to diminish immunity. In a stressful situation, your brain releases cortisol, adrenalin and other chemicals for the body to prepare you for those primitive survival responses of fight, flight or freeze.

During lockdown you are not physically taking any of those actions, so the chemicals are not used up and remain in your body.

This leaves you feeling keyed up and can interrupt sleep, affect appetite and mood.

Over time these increased levels may also damage organs, cause cancer or even lead to medical conditions such as diabetes or a heart attack.

It disrupts and damages relationships

Over time, ongoing lack of sleep increases irritability which can make people short-tempered, irritable and sometimes even irrational.

When you are living in close quarters with others for extended periods of time, such as now with the lockdown, you don’t have the opportunity to leave the environment to unwind or decompress.

This puts additional pressure on relationships and can add tension to an already uncomfortable situation.

It brings ‘old ghost’ patterns of behaviour back to the fore

People in lockdown live in a perpetual state of stress. The risk here is that old issues or behaviours that may have been successfully alleviated through therapy in the past, can re-emerge as the brain battles to combat the concerns of our current, unprecedented day-to-day reality.

An increase in substance abuse is also a distinct possibility in such circumstances.

It is an unpredictable reality – the unknown can be more devastating than the known

This virus creates pre-emptive trauma because there is so much still unknown – and the information seems to keep changing every day.

This creates increasing levels of stress and fear as we consider a future we can’t adequately predict.

We need to get ahead of the stress by putting coping and stress management strategies in place proactively, creating resilience for the weeks and months ahead.

There are, however, many ways to counter stress such as exercise, taking up a hobby, engaging in coaching or even therapy.

One of the newest and efficient methods in terms of quick results is Brain Working Recursive Therapy (BWRT), developed by Terence Watts in the UK.

BWRT is an effective tool to alleviate stress symptoms and potentially increase your immunity and overall well-being.

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