Anxiety - how to manage?

[AnxiousOverCovid]

I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to manage anxiety during this.

I have been glued to the news and reading up about the coronavirus for the last few weeks. At first it was helpful as I could see what was happening in Italy and start preparing for what was to come. However now it is here and we are on lockdown and there is nothing left to do or prepare for aside from staying home and waiting it out and I am still feeling incredibly anxious. It feels like my whole day is just consumed by this - wake up and catch up on what happened overnight, then wait for the 2pm updated data and then wait for the 5pm press conference and in between just reading about the coronavirus constantly. My health anxiety has really ramped up and every few days I start worrying I have some serious illness and then I panic because if that is the case I can't access medical treatment as easily due to the current situation. I know this health anxiety has only come about as an outlet and way to express all the anxiety I feel as I know deep down there is nothing wrong with me and it always resurfaces when I am stressed. I tried to have a nice relaxing shower and pamper evening and ended up having a panic attack and I haven't had panic attacks in over a year until these last few weeks.

I don't know how to take care of myself in this regard. I know reading about the coronavirus all day everyday isn't good for me yet when I try and take a break from it and watch a film I can't concentrate or like earlier I try and have a nice pamper evening and end up having a panic attack.

Does anyone have any advice? I am currently unemployed after graduating and jobs in my field have pretty much completely dried up overnight because of this situation so I don't have work to keep me busy. I just want to make some kind of plan for some structure in my day to keep me busy.

Thank you and to everyone else feeling anxious.

I have been glued to the news and reading up about the coronavirus for the last few weeks.

As you mentioned - stop. Absolutely stop. Limit all social media and news access to a small as you need it to be. It sounds like you can fully isolate? If you can then I'd limit all your access to an absolute maximum of 30 minutes in 1 session. Maybe even not at all if you can.

I spoke to my therapist yesterday and her caseload has shot up (as you'd expect) due the levels of anxiety people are feeling. If at all possible I would recommend scheduling an appointment with a professional, things don't have to be dire for you to talk to someone who is trained to help. I don't suffer with health anxiety myself and am coping ok at the moment but her advice to me was to limit the news and social media. And also to just focus on keeping my bubble happy/safe (cause I mentioned I had a bit of guilt about not doing more to help others).

In terms of actionable day to day advice, I would 100% agree that you need structure / a plan to your day.

There are sooo many self-learning opportunities available at the moment. There are free audiobooks, free training courses etc. I was already on mat leave so my day to day hadn't changed much but I'm using my time for the following things...

• Watching Netflix, Amazon Prime and (as of tomorrow) Disney +
• Doing professional qualifications that will benefit me once I get back to work
• Reading self-learning books (mostly people leadership, software design, and engineering project management but also some other soft skills)
• Tidying, cleaning and sorting the house
• Exercising (more home-based now of course)
• Playing with my baby and taking a picture of him every day to share with family now we cant visit them
• Lots of cooking from scratch