Building Coping Skills During A Pandemic

It’s a global pandemic and the challenges posed by the stresses added to our lives are heavy. If you’re a student, you now attend classes online or wear surgical masks everywhere. You have to combat deadlines and complete task more on your own. You have to be more focused and disciplined, doing things that ordinarily your teacher or friends may remind you to do. Similarily, if your a professor or teacher, you now must not only create in-person content that you would teach in class but also additional resources for students to use online. This adds even more stress and tasks to your already ridiculous load.

All in all, the coronavirus pandemic has altered our qualities of life in fundamental

ways. For this reason, it is now hard to imagine what life will be in the aftermath of this

"the coronavirus pandemic has altered our qualities of life in fundamental ways."

global event. Regardless, we must also consider how our lives are going during it.

In this article, we will recognize some of the consequences this event has had on many of us and analyze some ways we can develop coping mechanisms to keep up with the pressures we now face. Let’s dive deeper into what we can do.

The pandemic has negatively impacted many people’s mental health. Things like as increased isolation, job loses, and the deaths of family and friends are affecting us gravely. According to researchers in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Trauma not only the pandemic worsened our symptoms of anxiety, PTSD, and depression, but so did the safety measures many countries implemented to keep their citizens safe. While they were necessary, for many people their loneliness only increased as a resul

So, how can we combat this? What can we do protect ourselves from the inevitable challenges of this event. Well, it’s simple. By employing successful strategies known as coping skills, we can improve our lives at least a little bit until this frightening experience has passed. The following recommendations can be applied to combat these stressful situations.

1. What Can You control?

When considering what changes we can make to improve our lives, we must first ask this simple question. What can we do to let go frivolous things and move past this trauma we’ve all endured? How can we move forward in the midst of a global pandemic? Well, consider what you have control over and what you can do to take advantage of that. What positive things can you do to make your life just a little bit different?

2. Reduce Social Media Use

According to recent research, people from numerous countries consistently reported increases in depression and anxiety when they also increased their use of social media. This is probably because more prominence of a global event also leads to more exposure and news coverage that can end up in our feeds. That’s why, researchers suggest that the reduction of social media use during could make us much happier. Something to try?

3. Adopt A New Project or Hobby

What do you like doing? Well, thanks to the pandemic (sarcastic), you may have more time to do just that. So find a hobby, develop a skill, start that passion project because God knows what else we’ll do. Utilize any new found free time you may have in an effective way and see where it takes you. What are you going to try next?

The pandemic has taken its toll, seeming to drive some of us mad with angst or boredom, but it doesn’t have too. There are ways we can minimize our anxiety, depression, or fears, and move forward. When this is all over, we will face a new discussion about how to cope with all the challenges that will bring, but until then we can use these tools to make our lives better.

Article by Jacob Just-Buddy

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