How I'm Protecting My Mental Health Amid More COVID Variant Cases

I’ve been thinking a lot about my mental health as COVID variants (like the Delta variant) have increased over the last few weeks. My mental health has been easily triggered since our move and while some of the triggers are things I can’t control (like a COVID outbreak), there are others I can (mostly my routines).

Since I got my vaccine back in April I’ve been treading lightly with my own re-entry into “regular” life or society. A big part of this is that we moved just two months after getting our vaccines, so we’ve been knee deep in adjusting to life back on the east coast anyway. But, an even bigger part is that I just wasn’t ready to commit 100% to regular life. I felt skeptical of whether others were taking their responsibility towards their community seriously or whether people were just really fed up with being home and needed to be out at all costs.

While I can’t pinpoint other people’s motivations or know their vaccine status, I can control my own personal decisions, how I move in the world, and what I expect of myself.

REMINDing myself WHERE i’m STARTING FROM

I wrote a piece for Well + Good back in May 2020 titled “I’m Scared of When Social Distancing Ends—but Here’s How I Plan on Dealing” — like that is how far back my anxiety around re-entry goes. To add fuel to the fire, the many false starts to “normal” life didn’t help. If anything, those false starts are the reason I’ve taken it so slow now. I know that while my depression is triggered with being home all the time, my anxiety is triggered by changing my routines too fast. I’ve made it a habit to remind myself that I’m starting from a place of doubt and fear and that I need to tend to myself and my pace.

NO ROOM FOR COMPARISON GAME

I know that I have friends who post-vaccine started living their lives like COVID was no longer in the picture. As one Amy Poehler once said, “good for them, not for me.” My pace is different and it isn’t something I want to be ashamed about. One habit that’s helped me stay far away from the comparison game is to congratulate myself for the steps I am taking. For instance, I’ve been going to coffee shops at least once a week and I can see how my anxiety shows up less and less with each time I go. Given the increase in variants, I’ve also written myself a permission slip to change up how I’d been going to those coffee shops. If there’s a day when I only feel comfortable sitting outside because of how crowded it is indoors, that’s okay.

CREATing FLEXIBILITY IN my ROUTINES

This rule has both been my mental health’s biggest saving grace, as well as the hardest component to manage. Adding flexibility (and writing myself those permission slips) can be rough for someone who likes a ton of structure. I use a good part of my journaling each week to remind myself that changing up my routines or changing my mind altogether doesn’t constitute a step back, it just means I changed my mind and found a way to better meet my needs. There’s no shame in any of the above. I encourage you to work in flexibility into how you manage your day-to-day because it will help take the pressure off your shoulders that there’s only one right way to go through your day.

LIMITING NEWS CONSUMPTION

At the beginning of COVID last year, I struggled so much with my news consumption. Even though I knew it overwhelmed me, I had the news on 24/7 and was plugged into Twitter nonstop. While weening myself off Twitter was slow, I finally was able to do it a few months ago. Now, as more cases ramp up and the news cycle has turned to COVID in more prominent ways, I’m back to making sure my news diet is not a trigger for my anxiety. Instead of opening up the homepage to any news outlet, I’ve been turning to morning news podcasts. The habit is new (just started this week), but I’ve already noticed how great it is for me to have a set number of minutes that are spent on news and nothing more. I’ve been gravitating towards the New York Times’ The Daily and Crooked Media’s What A Day as my balanced news sources. I especially like What A Day because it’ll give me the hard news but also some lighter entertainment news, which makes me feel less like the world is ending.

I know that managing our mental health amid a pandemic is and will continue to be very hard. The best thing you can do is show up for your needs on a daily basis and cut yourself slack if your needs are different than they were yesterday.