DR MICHELE McDowell is an educational and child psychologist with over 18 years’ experience of working with children, parents and schools. Below she gives advice on how to manage feeling stressed and overwhelmed during the coronavirus outbreak.

We were having some fun with Google 3D animal pictures yesterday and my son made a picture of a tiger in the middle of our living room. It made me think actually it is very similar to what we are facing now. As far as our body is concerned we are currently experiencing an extremely stressful situation, very much like being faced with a big tiger in our living room! The coronavirus has triggered a surge of stress hormones that produces a process of physiological changes. 

COVID-19 has triggered the “fight, flight or freeze,” this means that overtime our bodies response have learnt to respond to external stress (like a tiger chasing) by reacting quickly to get out of danger. Even though it is not very likely that we would be faced by a tiger chasing us today, the chain of hormonal changes and physiological responses occur to any stress event we face. Therefore, now when we are faced with the stresses related to COVID-19, our body helps us to manage the threat by either: fighting, freezing or fleeing to safety. In the short term these keep us safe, however overtime, this reaction can contribute to high blood pressure, and cause brain changes that can develop into anxiety, depression, or an addiction.

In the last two weeks, I have been talking to parents about how they are feeling and the words: stressed and overwhelmed have been a common theme. I believe that the news content, daily briefings from the government and associated personal family worries has led to people experiencing an adrenaline rush. Consequently the heart beats faster than normal, pushing blood to the muscles, heart, and other vital organs. The pulse rate, blood pressure going up, rapid breathing and more oxygen being sent to the brain. This heightens awareness and all the senses become more alert to any oncoming dangers. If this sounds like you, do not be alarmed, your body is doing what it is supposed to do.

In other words, people are processing the stress by being somewhere between fight (rampaging for toilet rolls and binge buying), freeze (feeling completely overwhelmed and unable to take any action) or flight (escaping completely away from anything to do with COVID-19, for example, mindlessly scrolling social media).  

Here are some ways in which you can change the stress response, For example:

Relaxation: mindfulness, deep abdominal breathing, journaling, gratitude lists, positive visualisation, prayer and yoga. these all help to calm and centre you.

Exercise: skipping, walking, jogging, running and dance all help to relieve stress and muscle tension. 

Communication: Even within lock-down keeping connected to loved ones is really important for sustaining a sense of well-being. Make use of social networking technology allows you to give and receive emotional support. 

A combination of all of the above will make this time of chronic stress manageable and help you get through.

So, let’s keep the COVID-19 tiger away, remember ABC: 

Awareness of what is happening to your body  

Breathe the stress away

Communicate and connect with loved ones!