The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
At the grocery store the other day, I walked past a woman who had her cart filled with only vegetables. As I clutched my three packs of Magnum Dark ice cream bars to my beating heart, I thought to myself, “I used to be that woman.”
In fact, until a few months ago, I absolutely was that woman. I’m a huge believer in the axiom that you are what you eat, and since my vegetarian college years, I try hard most days to make sure I eat the colors of the rainbow.
But on this particular day, I’d spent two hours on the phone battling health insurance companies, wrestled with multiple internet outages while trying to calmly respond to readers upset that I encourage COVID vaccinations for children, and struggled to rearrange summer vacation in light of astronomical gas prices.
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Before two years of #pandemiclife, the above would have been irritating, but little more. With connection issues, for instance, Pre-Pandemic Renee would have simply moved work to the closest coffee shop. I had all the mottos: Problems are just challenges looking for a solution! Look for the positive! Sure, life can be hard, but we can do hard things! And for most of the pandemic, I kept up those mottos.
But a few months ago, as the Jan. 6 investigative hearings started and the Supreme Court voted to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants when we’re headed off a cliff with climate change, and I got COVID, my resilience meter plummeted.
Now, just thinking of having to unplug my laptop, toss it in my car, drive 3.5 miles and pay $1.10 more than I did last year for the same size Americano to get work done makes me want to curl into a fetal position.
Or, as my grocery trip revealed, hog all the good ice cream.
Apparently, as so many other people have already done, I’m hitting Breakdown Wall.
Numerous studies on the world’s mental health show we’re not doing too well. The most extensive study, published in the October 2021 issue of the Lancet medical journal, looked at the increase in depression and anxiety diagnoses in 204 countries and territories during 2020 compared to 2019.
It found that in 2020, there were an estimated 76 million additional cases of anxiety and 53 million additional cases of major depression diagnosed globally over 2019 numbers. The study showed we’re also exhausted and distracted, as evidenced by a many-fold increase in attention-deficit and wakefulness medication prescriptions in 2020.
It’s enough to make you want to crawl back into bed or binge watch Netflix or eat an entire cheesecake. But, according to various mental health professionals — busy posting this advice online because there are months-long waiting lists to get in to see therapists — none of those ideas will make you feel better in the long run. So, what will?
First, we must accept that living through a worldwide trauma marked by inconsistent leadership and a “Hate Your Neighbor” vibe did a number on our brains. That acceptance will give us space to take the other steps that consistently pop up in advice from sources as varied as the National Institute of Mental Health, Teen Vogue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Men’s Health magazine. Here are the most frequently mentioned:
1. Begin your day calmly. Spend five to 10 minutes each morning in meditation or prayer. Apps like Headspace or Hallow can really help.
2. Exercise outside daily. Even 15 minutes of walking will help get you the endorphin boost from early morning sunshine that fights depression.
3. Eat healthy meals on a regular schedule, and drink lots and lots of water.
4. Stick to a regular sleep-wake schedule, even on weekends. (Pro-tip: Turn off your devices an hour before bed to promote better rest.)
5. Watch who you follow. If someone on social media makes you jealous, depressed or anxious, stop following that person. Ditto for in-real-life encounters with friends, co-workers or that cousin who still insists QAnon is right.
6. Be grateful and reflective. Each evening, write down two things you’re grateful for and two things you accomplished. The latter can be as simple – and important – as reading a book with your child.
7. Have a goal and work toward it. Having purpose like this keeps us from ruminating about things we can’t control. If setting a goal seems overwhelming, remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Think of something you want to do or change and take one step in that direction.
For me, I think it will be eating a tiny bit less ice cream.
