5 Reasons why dealing with #lockdown stress is important

LIKE it or not, no matter how informed and logical you are, you are probably experiencing some moments of ‘is this really happening’ accompanied by some bodily sensation of anxiety.

Your brain is doing exactly what it is designed to do, responding to threat.

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Zululand-based clinical psychologist, Shelley Hall said, “A threat places strain on your system and stresses your brain and body. No matter how strong and pragmatic you may try to be, the stress of lockdown and the accompanying global uncertainty is a threat to your health.”

Here are five reasons why you should make a plan to deal with lockdown stress now.

-It lowers your immune response

Ongoing stress is known to diminish immunity. In a stressful situation, your brain releases cortisol, adrenalin and other chemicals for the body to prepare you for those primitive survival responses of fight, flight or freeze. During lockdown you are not physically taking any of those actions, so the chemicals are not used up and remain in your body.

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This leaves you feeling keyed up and can interrupt sleep, affect appetite and mood. Over time these increased levels may also damage organs, causes cancer or even leads to medical conditions such as diabetes or a heart attack. What’s more, ongoing stress interferes with the production of helper T-cells and other cells essential for a healthy immune response.

-It disrupts and damages relationships

Over time, the ongoing lack of sleep increases irritability and can make people short tempered, irritable and sometimes even irrational.

When you are living in close quarters with others for extended periods of time, such as lockdown, you don’t have the opportunity to leave the environment to unwind or decompress.  This puts additional pressure on relationships and can add tension to an already uncomfortable situation.

-It can bring old-ghosts/patterns of behaviour back to the fore

People in lockdown live in a perpetual state of stress.

The risk here is that old issues or behaviours that may have been successfully alleviated through therapy in the past, can resurge as the brain battles to combat the concerns of our current, unprecedented day-to-day reality.

– It increases the potential for substance abuse

Using anti-histamines, cough medication and alcohol to facilitate a sense of calm and ease with your situation often increases.

These are recognised pit-falls on the path to people self-medicating as a means to counter hyper-vigilance and ‘de-stress” temporarily.

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The ban on alcohol and cigarettes during lockdown in South Africa has potentially also increased people’s sense of a being distanced from normal habits and comforts, possibly leading to people with access to either, over-indulging in a reflex response.

-In an unpredictable reality, the unknown can be more devastating than the known

This virus creates pre-emptive trauma because there is so much still unknown – and the information seems to keep changing every day.

This creates an ever-increasing level of stress and fear as we consider a future we can’t adequately predict. We need to get ahead of the stress by putting coping and stress management strategies in place proactively; creating resilience for the weeks and months ahead.

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Hall added that there are many ways to counter stress such as exercise, taking up a hobby, engaging in coaching or even therapy.  One of the newest – and very efficient in terms of speed to results –is Brain Working Recursive Therapy(BWRT) developed by Terence Watts in the UK.

“This a therapy based in neuroscience that works with the reptilian complex to very quickly change your stress response to something calmer. It is carried out in a completely conscious state and once completed, it is a little like deleting an old app and installing a new one.”

Hall said she believes that BWRT is an effective tool to alleviate stress symptoms and potentially increase their immunity and overall well being too.  For more information on BWRT go to www.bwrt.org – or if you want to find out how BWRT can help you combat your response to Covid-19, click here

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