According to specialists, to regain calm and achieve a greater sense of well-being, it is important to foster an attitude of understanding regarding what we have experienced over the past few months. How do we face the challenge of closing out a year filled with uncertainty? Taking a moment to reflect and understand everything we have experienced will likely help us face this period with calm and equanimity.
For months, we have been in a process of distancing and uncertainty that has led us to feel vulnerable, disoriented, and tired, with great difficulty anticipating what might happen, feeling tremendously stretched, testing our emotional stability and all our resources. Trying to adapt to this situation involves becoming aware that suffering is present in each of us. In this sense, achieving empathy with others helps us feel supported, understood, and united to do something real to alleviate the suffering,” says Paulina Lucherini, a psychologist specializing in couples therapy and compassion-focused therapy at Clínica Las Condes.
In this context, the psychologist asserts that today, we must recognize the value of compassion and empathy in our lives and our emotional relationships.
“Neuroscience research shows that compassion is a quality that can be trained, activating areas of the brain related to positive emotions and feelings of well-being, such as love and care. It also helps to mitigate feelings of anguish and stress,” she adds.
This is something we can put into practice more than ever these days, considering that we are in the end-of-year period, a time when we are accustomed to gathering with family to close cycles and celebrate and which, for many, will be different this time.
The holidays have a very powerful emotional component: getting together, hugging, sharing, being with others. With the pandemic, many of those experiences are being limited, which generates frustration, anxiety, and stress. To avoid this, it’s important to look for other ways to share and support each other from a distance, such as recording videos, holding video calls, sending gifts to each other’s houses, making Secret Friends from a distance, etc. It’s difficult to accept that things won’t be the same as before, but it’s key to discuss different alternatives as a family to maintain ties and closeness more innovatively,” explains Tomás Miño, child and adolescent psychologist at the Anxiety Disorders Unit at Clínica Las Condes.
This is key to stepping back and realizing that we’re all in the same circumstances nd that the failure to achieve projects isn’t just about one person but about the global situation. With this in mind, we can look for ways to reorganize projects, adapt them, reinvent ourselves, and generate new ideas within the current limitations, as it’s important to stay active and busy,” the psychologist adds.
This is because caring for our mental health is also related to being aware that we’re in an exceptional and very difficult situation, so we should prioritize support, affection, family play spaces, and letting off steam with others, as well as seeking the help of a specialist if necessary.
When to consult an expert
Certain changes may be expected and normal under this new reality. However, when symptoms prevent you from working, concentrating, enjoying things, going out without anxiety, etc., it is necessary to consult a specialist, as you may be experiencing a depressive or anxiety disorder.
Some warning signs include:
- Difficulty sleeping.
- Changes in appetite.
- Irritability.
- High anxiety.
- Frequent crying.
Mental health figures
Even before the start of the pandemic, Chile already had worrying figures regarding the mental health of its population. In fact, according to the latest National Mental Health Survey, 15% of Chileans over the age of 18 may be suffering from depression.
Now, after months of uncertainty in which we have had to face a new reality for which no one was prepared, consultations associated with the stress of months of confinement, the feeling of aa lackof freedom, and truncated projects have increased significantly . Psychological consultations have increased recently, and the impact on mental health post-pandemic is projected to be very severe, especially in terms of depression and anxiety, both in the adult population and in young people and children, which can also be very complex for family dynamics,” says psychologist Tomás Miño.
Our body under stress
Stress directly affects our bodies, causing neurobiological effects. A person with high levels of stress releases large amounts of the hormone cortisol, which affects the central nervous system, puts us on alert, generates more arousal, and raises blood pressure. All of this makes it difficult to think, makes the heart race, and impairs the entire body’s ability to function properly.
