Positive mental health habits took a hit during the pandemic. It’s time to reclaim them.
When life was put on pause last March, Kenmore resident Megan Barone took the change as an opportunity for some at-home self-care.
Whew. Time to breathe a big sigh of relief as we return somewhat back to normal. But not quite.
She woke up early, read frequently, caught up on graduate school coursework, cooked three meals a day with her boyfriend and established an at-home workout routine.
“I actually was, like, thriving,” Barone said. “I loved being home, not having the stress of work. I was still getting my masters, and just having time and catching up. And I was eating very healthy because there was nothing else to do. You couldn’t go out to eat. When we first shut down, I mentally and physically was pretty great.”
But when schools reopened and she headed back to work as a seventh and 10th grade teacher in Lockport, that’s when the anxiety set in, she said.
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“Managing the new normal was so stressful,” Barone said. “Just the new protocols and all that stuff were very difficult. It was when we started opening up that was really stressful and hard and difficult, and teaching during the pandemic was very difficult.”
After her last day with students in late June, Barone said she felt a “weight lifted off her shoulders.”
Not far away in Lancaster, resident Sarah Santora found solace in self-reflection and fitness, prioritizing “whole body wellness” that included self-care and mental health aspects.
“I don’t know why it took me so long to get to the stage of my life to really become aware of that, but I’m glad that I am,” Santora said, adding that any physical changes she notices are “just a bonus to that.”
According to Santora, self-care has been a mainstay for her during the pandemic.
“I’m big on self-care,” she said. “Sometimes, I feel selfish that I like self-care so much, but things that I can do for me, whether it’s going to the gym or getting my nails done or going grocery shopping by myself, that, to me, is my self-care, and I need that to be better, stronger, more present for the people I need to be in my life. Because if I didn’t provide that self-care, I couldn’t be there for anybody else.”
Regardless of how they chose to do it, countless more Western New York residents coped with the spectrum of their experiences in these unprecedented 16 months in their own ways. Some found the time for new quarantine skills, habits and at-home innovations. Some faced high levels of work stress, or lost family and friends – in distance, or to Covid – and suffered lasting trauma to their mental health.
As Buffalonians take the first few steps out of the woods of the pandemic, psychologists point to the increased importance of protecting and improving mental health.
In the past year-plus, the CDC reported significant spikes in the percentages of adults who reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Of 5,470 who responded to surveys last June, 40.9% reported an adverse mental or behavioral health condition. About 31% reported symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive disorder, and 26.3% reported trauma- and stressor-related disorder (TSRD) symptoms related to Covid. Some 13% reported starting or increasing substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to Covid, and 10.7% reported having seriously considered suicide in the last 30 days.
According to Spectrum Health and Human Services Clinician Katrina Norris, the increased levels of mental distress are consistent with what she has noticed in her office in the past year, speaking to a “huge” surge in clients seeking out services for the first time due to increase in sadness or worrying.
Additionally, she added, several clients at Spectrum who had been doing well until the pandemic began experiencing a decline in their mental health.
“I have worked in this field for over 13 years and have never seen an event trigger so many mental health symptoms in the community,” Norris said. “Between both my professional life and my personal life, the people I have encountered have all vocalized the toll the pandemic has had on them in one way or another.”
Barone and Santora said they will be bringing forward the pieces of what they learned during the pandemic to consciously maintain wellness.
Going forward, Barone said she plans to set boundaries about when to turn attention away from her phone and emails, and return to the healthy at-home routine she developed early in the pandemic.
“Now that everything has been digital for the past year, learning when to turn it off and not be on 24/7, and knowing, ‘Hey, just because my laptop is where all of my work is right now doesn’t mean I have to be working 24/7,’” Baraone said. “It’s so hard, too, because your email’s on your phone, and you’re constantly refreshing and answering. And at least in this profession, you have students sending you emails at 10 at night, or later sometimes and it’s like I need to know that even though this is how work is, I am not going to be working at a certain time.”
Barone added that she plans to implement mask-wearing if she is feeling under the weather.
“I don’t care if it’s, like, five years from now,” Barone said. “I hope it’s a new cultural norm and maybe the West adopts this, but I like the whole sanitizing everything and mask-wearing that moving forward, I hope it is a new part of our culture, but it will be a part of mine, I guess.”
As restrictions ease, Santora said she is eager to go back out into the world again.
“Spending the last year so in our little bubble, I can’t wait to get out into the bigger bubble,” Santora said, “use the things that I’ve learned about myself over the past year and be able to go out and spread the joy. I’ve really started to be very cognizant about looking for joy in everything I can because we know, as the last year has shown us, that it can be taken away so quickly.”
She added that she plans to go out and enjoy “everything that Buffalo and Western New York has to offer,” especially with the nice weather.
“Think about the people that weren’t able to come out of this with something positive,” Santora said. “Going back to the mental health thing, there’s a lot of challenges there. You have to find the positive, because we have lives to live now. The world did not explode, it did not crumble into itself. We have to go out there now.”
5 tips to improve your mental health
To protect and maintain one’s mental health, Spectrum Health counselor Katrina Norris points to five key guideposts anyone can add to their life:
1. Establish a positive routine.
Norris urges people to develop a regular routine that incorporates healthy lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, hygiene and sleep schedule.
While seemingly simple, recent studies from the Journal of Global Health say that interventions like this can “buffer the adverse impact of stress exposure on mental health.”
2. Take part in positive activities.
From crafting to time with family to cooking or taking a walk, Norris urges people to take time to immerse themselves in activities that bolster their mood.
3. Establish positive supports.
Norris noticed through her work at Spectrum that the overall themes of loss and lack of control have been significantly triggering and anxiety- and depression-inducing for many, she said.
“We have lost our ability to go out freely without restrictions,” Norris said. “Some people have lost family members, some have lost jobs, some have lost financial stability. Many have lost their ability to see their social supports or their loved ones. So many things have been taken away from us that we took for granted and although it was with the intent to keep us safe, it still can make a significant impact on our emotional well-being.”
From family or friends to online support groups, this aspect is key for ensuring that people do not feel isolated during this time.
4. Know the resources.
Especially now, Norris encourages people to know their resources – whether mental health services, or general local communities – and not suffer in silence.
Some resources are available instantaneously over the phone, such as NY Project Hope, a statewide crisis counseling response to Covid. Anyone can call Spectrum’s emotional support program at 566-6506.
5. Utilize Spectrum Health’s blog.
For those looking to take the first steps toward mental wellness, Norris also points to Spectrum Health Voices Blog, an online platform where experts chime in on different mental health topics. She added that the counselors at Spectrum Health are also equipped to provide personalized care and can create a plan catered to one’s personal needs.
