I’m not sure who of my friends know, but from time to time, I go through mental health issues, and with the world events at present, the past week has triggered a lot of things in my mind.
Now I haven’t always been this way, before my first panic attack at 31 years old I never suffered mental health issues and probably wasn’t very empathetic to those that did. After my 3rd daughter was born with health issues, for 2 years I denied I was suffering Post Natal Depression and tried to ‘ride it out’. My first panic attack was when she was about 2 weeks old in the city. I was in the Carillion Arcade in the city, when suddenly I felt hot and overwhelmed, a weird feeling called panic overtook my body. I had to get out of their immediately. I just took off running with my family following behind, wondering what was going on.
For 2 years I just told myself I was okay. From that time I have now had a few larger episodes where I need to see the doctor. I suppose, from that first one I have created a brain pattern which creates panic.
This past week has been a strain on my brain, and it has raced from 0 to 100 in a few short days. Yesterday I saw my doctor who is brilliant with talking with me, and a big chat to my Mum, who under these times is a person of strength to me, as are my beautiful daughters.
With this, I suddenly had a change in thought patterns. Stopped thinking about the negative and thought about the helpful things I could do for myself and my family. I thought f&ck this fear, and embrace community. To look after my immediate family, to be there for friends and community and get our household prepared for the months ahead. On the Internet I found good resources about getting prepared for a crisis, which talked about creating a healthy body to fight disease, keeping your house clean and reduce the risks of bringing germs into your home, and lung exercises (I will link a couple of these below).
Yes our social, health and community services are going to be stretched to their limits. There is going to be times of darkness for families. But we need to come together, to support each other. The toilet paper saga showed us how panic creates fear. How fear and panic turns us into unreasonable human beings - it is our natural response mode, the fright or flight. I’m sure the persons fighting over the loo rolls are not terrible people but are people gripped in fear.
We need to be there for our friends to talk to, to share our resources, to prevent social isolation. Be responsible humans to each other so we don’t have to go to draconian methods, which I think seeing these in China has set a lot of bad, unhealthy thoughts in peoples brains.
This is what our government really is trying to achieve. No matter if they’re liberal or labour, they are humans who also have families who live here, and I’m sure truely want to do the best for our system and health. Our government is us. We need to take their directives for a better outcome during the pandemic. To follow advice on social distancing, cleanliness and remain calm. If they do announce a home quarantine, we need to be best prepared for that, and realise we are not getting told to lock ourselves away forever, merely to stop 🛑 the spread so our services can catch up and not be at bursting point. Wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce the spread so the outbreaks remain a size that our doctors and health workers can keep up with, to give optimal care.
In an article I found of a young South African trapped in Wuhan, some of her words struck a cord with me. Her hardest thing being trapped in her tiny apartment for so long was her mental health and not being able to be in human contact. She advised others to “protect their minds.” She also said "Don't go crazy, don't analyse things, and don't read the news every day and look at the death toll — it doesn't help.
Numbers are numbers and it doesn't impact you until you are sick."
I have been thinking about social distancing, isolation and how we can use what we have - social media for example, to create safe community spaces. Hold online coffee mornings or catch ups. Lots of ideas 💡 running through my head, so watch this space for more coming. I have zoom, so will create some meet ups for anyone feels they would like to join in.
So winding up, personally these are the things so far I am doing and going to do for a healthy me:
I have seen a health care worker for advice of my mental health - this is not something to be ashamed of.
Prepared my fridge and pantry for if the situation of a short quarantine arises - I did a large online shop which at the moment takes a couple of days to be delivered.
Leaving my shoes outside the front door to keep and germs on the soles out in the sun.
Increased my hand washing and sanitising - thoroughly washing my hands as soon as I come home from anywhere.
Keeping my washing up to date (um those who know me know house is definitely not my strong suit).
Tidying and cleaning my kitchen (ditto to above).
Looking into ways I can help my family in isolation if/when they get this virus.
Reducing my human to human interactions in large gatherings
Reducing my time on bloody social media.
I hope this little blog has been helpful, and if you are feeling overwhelmed, please reach out and talk to someone in your circle who is supportive and understanding of mental health.
Let’s f&ck fear and bring back community
#f&ckfearbringbackcommunity
A couple of good images from the Singapore Government (ours is not so pretty)
LINKS
Links to a couple of sites I have found to be rewarding/positive and not scaring my mental thoughts:
The REAL David Abel - a couple who caught the virus on a cruise ship and their journey in a Japanese hospital thus far
The Patriot Nurse - Prepare not panic
Interview with Michael Osterholm - a Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology
And my YouTube for future online activities.
