Coping During COVID: 7 Mental Health Tips for Millennials and their Families

Apr 9

By, Emma Pautler

DR. MEGHAN WALLS SHARES WORK-FROM-HOME TRICKS, PARENTING TIPS AND MENTAL HEALTH ACTIVITIES TO KEEP YOU SANE DURING THE QUARANTINE.

Meghan Walls, PsyD., is a pediatric psychologist at Nemours/AI duPont Hospital for Children. She’s an active member of the community with her involvement with NAMI Delaware and other local organizations. We had the opportunity to chat with Meghan about mental health. You can watch the full interview here, or read the synopsis below.

During this really weird time, we know that being quarantined or social distancing in our houses is certainly affecting everyone's mental health. Whether you're a parent or just an adult at home, there are general tips and tricks to think about while we are stuck indoors. Here’s a list of ideas to help with your personal mental health.

1. MAKE TIME FOR NORMAL THINGS

Make time for normal things like actually taking a shower and getting dressed! Your body (and brain) needs this feeling of normalcy right now.

What is your schedule like? Are you eating, sleeping, showering as you would normally? It’s okay to break up your routine for a week, but after that, our brains get confused by being out of schedule. Staying on schedule is super important for your mental health.

For parents, it’s helpful to encourage a normal schedule for your kids as well. You have to make a color-coded schedule for your kids. Simply help them wake up on time, go to bed at the normal time and eat at normal times. This will help them.

2. GET UP AND MOVE!

It can be easy to wake up and go straight to your computer. It’s also very easy to keep working long after 5 PM. Set a timer to get out of the house for a bit, take an afternoon break. Take a walk. Don’t sit at your computer all day. Get up and move around.

You may be surprised how much your old routine at work actually kept you moving.

“On Thursday my watch recorded 700 steps all day. I usually have 6,000 walking around at work.”

See how you can replicate that at home. Clinically speaking, it’s called behavioral activation. Activities, physical movement, and exercise are used as treatment for mental health disorders. Think about what you enjoy doing every day. It doesn't have to be a full workout. It could be going for a walk outside, watering the plants, playing fetch with the dog. Continue to do these activities and savor them!

Your kids need this too! When kids are on a schedule that includes moving around and activities, they are less likely to have excess energy. Make sure you're supervising, and your kid isn’t going to get injured. The last thing you want is for a child to have to do to the ER!

3. FOCUS ON QUALITY TIME, NOT QUANTITY TIME

“Make sure you're reaching out and not just isolating.”

If you’re quarantined alone, it’s really important to find creative ways to connect with people. You may feel tired at the end of a long workday at home. You may have lost the motivation to reach out to a friend, but that's when you should reach out the most.

“If you're feeling tired, haven't showered that day and don’t want to call a friend. Call a friend.”

If you’re with your partner, eat dinner with your phones off to connect. It may feel like you’re with them all day, but that’s not the same as connecting.

With your kids, be intentional about giving them personal time. Quality time is really important for them; kids need that with you.

A lot of parents say their kids are really struggling with them working from home. Their kids want their constant attention all the time. They are interrupting every two minutes and knocking on the door. You assume they just want your attention, but they really want your full attention.

Plan 5 or 10 minutes where you can put your devices away. Take out Play-Doh or crayons and do something that your kid can really focus on with you. Spend 5 or 10 minutes a day with them and you'll see a really big improvement because really they're just wanting to have that time open to talk to you. If your job is really busy right now, plan to do this at the end of the day or really early in the morning. It’s important to find that time.

4. CHECK YOUR MENTAL HEALTH “VITALS”

If you stop eating or sleeping, or every little thing seems to set you off. Something bigger may be happening and you should seek help. A lovely part of Behavioral Health is Telehealth. Right now there's a lot of community Behavioral Health providers in Delaware that provide video conferencing therapy.

5. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL -- BREATHE IN AND BREATHE OUT

Everyone is talking about how quickly the virus is spreading and how scary it is. It's really important that we remember that we can't control everything. But we do have some control. We can choose to stay at home instead of going out to the park or the playground. We can choose to stay at home instead of running to Target. This gives us some control. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, whether it’s from the news or your kids, it may be helpful to work on your diaphragmatic breathing. This is low and slow, focused breathing. The free app, BioBelly can help with this. It provides biofeedback and plays music if you're doing your breathing right.

6. KNOW WHEN TO TURN OFF TECHNOLOGY

Find the balance on being informed and absorbing all the negative information on social media and the news. You may need to step back on your social media diet right now. For kids, technology may be their form of school right now. But there’s a difference between virtual education and fun technology. Kids need what we call “stimulus control.” Use the Screentime App to limit the “fun” apps and keep educational apps unlimited. These apps help set boundaries.

7. GIVE YOURSELF GRACE

This is a stressful time for everyone. It’s important to remember that for adults and kids, this is a time that is weird and different. None of us have gone through something quite like this before. Give each other a little grace. Parents, don't feel like you have to do every school project, everything for your job, all the laundry and the dishes. You will feel like a failure. Just do what you can get through.