Coronavirus Coping Skills

My heart goes out to the mental health professionals and patients and the affect this is having on their lives. Only they may truly understand just how much this all sounds eerily familiar, while continuing to suffer symptoms once invisible to others, yet now experienced by many. It is with them in mind that I will attempt some of what I learned, to life in quarantine:

• Map it out.

There is nothing you cannot map out, nothing you cannot plan. Get the notebook, journal or piece of paper of your preference. I prefer a hardbound sketchbook with plain white paper. Only recently, there were days where my ability to record a day's events ended up being crucial in my recovery. Once I committed to writing out exactly what I was going to do the next day, or the next week, I began to make progress. Now, like everyone else, that routine has been upended. BUT, I promise you that simply mapping out your days will make them more bearable.

• Group therapy.

Are you holed up in a small space with the same people day in and day out? Welcome to group therapy! It's time you learned what you are made of. I know I did.

• Be mindful.

Mindfulness for someone like me, with bipolar disorder, puts things in order. It allows the unstable to feel more stable. Paying attention, pacing myself and taking my time. Blobs of time with countless distractions start to form a clear picture. Take a look at what you're doing. Break it down into steps. Repeat.

• Catastrophizing.

I believe this word was invented in therapy. Everyone knows what a catastrophe is. Only some of us start to see catastrophes everywhere we look. Sound familiar? There are so many places to look that are not catastrophes. You need to look in those places.

• It's not happening now. (Zen)

The word 'zen' is included in parentheses because I have used my understanding of the practice to create one of my own in the early days of this crisis. No matter what I saw or heard on the news, or from others, I would go to my window and observe. Once or twice, I went live on Facebook and began to report on the nothing I saw. I take things too far. The point is that all of it was happening but none if it was happening outside that window. Feel like the world is collapsing? Head over to the window.

• You always have tomorrow's end of the world to look forward to.

This is a daily reminder when you are in group therapy. Remember the end of the world that started you on this journey? Worry about today's. Did you have one to talk about from yesterday? Focus on the one that just happened. There will always be another one.