Today, the world is in extreme fear. As we all know, the virus is causing the world to pretty much shut down. Coritines, travel bans, market crashes, it is all happening. Our fear is deriving from more than just the virus.

Fear is the root of anxiety, and OCD. Fear is beginning to sneak in and try and control our everyday actions. Fear, when the world is in fear, is normal but is so hard to control. My families psychologist said that people, especially children, who have anxiety and ocd are being affected mentally more than anyone knows. All of the fear is sneaking in subconsciously and we aren’t quite sure what to do about it. We are reacting the way the world is, we are shutting down.

For me, I am honestly not afraid of getting the virus. I have a decently healthy physical body. (I am, however, still taking precautions to protect those, whose physical health would be affected.) My fear and anxiety comes from the pure chaos that the world is in. Like the fact that when I run out of toilet paper, I won’t be able to get more…. AHH That worries me. Or that the NBA shut down, Disney shut down, my school shut down, like what am I supposed to do? That all just impacts my brain like I would have never guessed.

Although there a things we can’t control, there are things we can. In a time of such chaos, we need to be able to take a step back and try to keep ourselves in a healthy state of mind. To start, here are a few good things coming from all of this:

-We flatten the curve/save lives
-Have more time to strengthen relationships with our families 
-Have more time to focus on ourselves and our mental health
-Reduce pollutions-by a lot-as less people will be traveling
-Use this as practice for worse things to come. (I’ve never had to prepare for an “emergency” and have already learned so much)
-As a country, we learn what we need to work on and improve for pandemics and other threats

Part of spending time to focus on ourselves and our mental health is trying to figure out how to control our anxiety. Here is a list of ideas that might help:

-Don’t change your diet, eat healthy and normal.
-Watch what you are reading on social media and the news. Feeding your brain with fear from other sources is not going to help.
-Get a healthy amount of sleep. Drink plenty of water. Exercise. Keeping your physical body healthy will help support keeping your mental health, healthy.
-Find your safe space, somewhere you feel safe no matter what. Spend the time there you need to.
-Talk openly about your fears, and create an action plan on how you can work through them.
-Don’t completely isolate yourself. Still talk to people, even if its just over the phone. The more we isolate ourselves, the more we will repress our fears and the more alone we will feel.
-Try something new! Find a new hobby, read a new book… Anything that will help distract your brain is good!
– Don’t change your schedule drastically. If you work for a certain amount of hours a day, find something to achieve during those hours. Schedules are really good for our brains. The more we change them, the more our brains will feel uneasy.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. Keep doing what you’ve been doing. Stay healthy. We’ve got this!