How are you? How are you coping?

It’s common that we fail to detect stress on someone until it infiltrates their social functioning or occupational functioning but unfortunately in that time, push has come to shove, red alarms buzzing.

Social culture has made talking about being stressed depict some kind of ‘weakness’ especially regarding men or ‘bothersome’ especially regarding women , so we try to keep up appearances while we are silently getting drained. Of course Social media has platforms to relay self anonymously but it’s so open to a lot of criticism and down talking, seeking help there sometimes turns out to be adding to your burden.
We preach stay home nowadays so getting out to seek help has become a challenge.

The ‘new normal’ is depriving us of the essence of being ‘social beings’- that physical presence, that hand to hold, that comforting hug, wiping each other’s tears, the laughing and crying together, seeing that smile and facial expressions-reading body language has a lot of validation— that essence of ‘uninhibited social support’ has been limited.
Researchers have found that social support is another source of healing and thriving — without it we take a long time to recover, we are likely to give up easy, we are likely to fail, We feel deeply lonely, some feel abandoned, disregarded and unloved. Social distancing can be abrasive.

Covid-19 has made us live with constant stress- the worry, the uncertainty, the fear, bad news after the other, rollercoaster of emotions- when we think things are getting better they get worse. This has a toll on our physical & mental wellbeing.
Constant stress literally eats away our energy, it silently feed on us, your fatigue is sign of stress. We get burnt out – It pushes us to be emotional- we get irritable, we get sad, we anxious, coping is a hard.

Destressing has changed from just deciding to go to the cinema, going shopping or to a beauty parlour, it’s no more about going to check on your friends, visiting the sick, travelling, going to church, having a ‘chill session’, partying, recieving hugs, for some they can’t even take a drive nor walk or run in their neighborhood anymore. Social avenues for destressing are now a bigger risk.
destressing now seeks us to know what to do when alone and confined.

How are you? How are you coping?