Be Seen - How "The New Normal" Impacts Our Mental Health

It’s been 8 months since we officially went into the new “work from home” scenario in Portland, Oregon and needless to say it has not been easy on the vast majority of our community. Sure, initially, it might have been nice - not having to commute, going to work in our “home” clothes, and maybe even being able to get more work done without the usual distractions of our offices. But, how are we doing now? What is the state of our mental health? How do we even know that we’re dealing with a mental health issue alongside a global pandemic issue? A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll identified a 21% increase in adults reporting mental health issues from March 2020 to July 2020, with 36% reporting difficulty sleeping, 32% reporting difficulty eating, and 12% reporting an increase in alcohol and substance usage.

You might be wondering why we are talking about mental health as a physical therapy company, but, the truth is that we at Headquarters Physical Therapy place just as much value on the mental health of our clients as we do on their physical health. In fact, we see them as having a strong relationship with each other rather than being two separated compartments of an individual’s existence.

Before we can talk about what can be done about an issue, we think it’s worth having an honest conversation about what the contributing factors are to the issue

COVID-19

This is probably the more obvious factor. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone in different ways and to varying degrees. However, the one thing we can all agree on is we all hate it. The reason why is the amount of fear, uncertainty, and degree of uprooting of our “normal lives”. We fear getting sick, we fear getting others sick, we fear that we’ll have to wear masks and social distance forever. But going further than that, we fear that the virus may take away a loved one or may take away our job and ability to provide for our families. For our students, we fear that the virus will keep us out of our social circles at school longer than we are comfortable with.

Ultimately, it is the fear of the unknown that weighs on us. This fear stems from realizing that we are in a situation that no one can fully control and that no one can identify a definitive end point. That feeling of losing control can often lead us down a never-ending cycle of worry and concern that things can only get worse from here. Thoughts that we will get sick, our loved ones will get sick, our coworkers and friends will get sick, or that everyone else will get sick and force us to isolate ourselves further run rampant in our minds.

Isolation

It is without a doubt that we, as humans, are social creatures. True, this varies in degrees from person to person, but as a whole we need a community to survive and thrive. Our children need to socialize with peers to develop social and emotional skills, our elderly need to interact with family members to feel loved and cared for, and we all need to interact with other humans in some way to feel like we still exist. While we don’t intend to get into a political discussion about quarantine measures, social distancing regulations, and so on, we will agree with most people that our reduction in human interaction felt very immediate and intense. For many people, that isolation was enough to have negative effects on their mental health.

Initially, the working from home situation was enjoyable for many. Some talked about how nice it was to not have to commute and deal with traffic, eat lunch at home instead of a break room, and just be around their families a little more than they were used to. However, as the pandemic wore on we started hearing more about “Zoom fatigue” - that people were having a very difficult time communicating effectively, staying focused, and ultimately feeling like they were part of something significant when all of their meetings began taking place on a small screen. Body language is an important part of our human interaction and that became almost eliminated with the increased usage of telecommunication. Other contributing factors to “Zoom fatigue” are that meetings in offices can sometimes be scheduled ad hoc, particularly if they are short 5-15 minute discussions. However, now that everyone is working from home, more meetings need to be scheduled in advance. As a result, more and more people are feeling tethered to their schedules and digital calendars and having a harder time feeling like real contributors to their work. What has helped with efficiency on the broad spectrum has impacted enthusiasm on the individual level. This is also being seen in the educational landscape as some school districts are unable to enforce cameras being on while in class. Subsequently, teachers are sometimes left teaching to a screen of black squares rather than a room of people who respond with head nods, raised hands, facial expressions, and the like. On top of that, the students who are entering new schools on their computers rather than in person are missing out on typical venues to meet other students such as dances, sporting events, classrooms, and campus gatherings.

Blurred boundaries

Another aspect of our “new normal” that has weighed heavily on people is the blurring of boundaries in not only our relationships but also in our day-to-day duties. Parents have had to learn how to homeschool their children, our spare bedrooms have become full-time offices, and our work responsibilities have bled into our private lives. The stress of having to apologize to colleagues for children in the background during Zoom meetings has begun to wear on us and our parent-guilt, having more and more work meetings pile up both earlier and later in the day than we are accustomed to is encroaching on our independence, and having to share a “classroom” with siblings of a different age is confusing the social development of our children.

Boundaries help us define who we are as individuals. The space we keep for ourselves and the space we allow certain people to enter helps us identify who and what is important to us. When these boundaries get blurred it can become challenging to prioritize other aspects of our lives, such as our physical health.

How physical therapy can play a role in mental health

So how can we, as a physical therapy, nutrition, and wellness solutions company contribute to this conversation of mental health? First off, we need to preface this by saying we are not mental health providers so none of this advice is diagnostic. However, in our experience, we often consult individuals on how their physical health and mental health impact one another. Through those countless number of conversations here are some of the general recommendations we have given to clients.

Exercise All we know about exercise is that it has been shown to have positive effects on one’s mental health status. Having said that, the mechanisms are not completely understood nor are the improvements guaranteed for each person as mental health issues vary significantly from person to person. However, the data still suggest that a regular exercise routine of any kind can be a good mood booster. So whether you want to lift weights or go for a run, both can be great options. Our recommendation is to do a little bit of both resistance training and aerobic exercise.

Nutrition Along with exercise, making healthy eating choices can be challenging when your kitchen and snack pantry is footsteps away from your new office. However, some simple tips to improve your nutritional choices are to place healthy option snacks like fruit, nuts, and sparkling waters on your kitchen counter every morning in place of options like sweets and sodas.

Routine This falls along similar lines as our recommendation to participate in exercise. One session is not likely to have any sort of magic effect. Similar to the power of compounding in a savings or investment account, the power of exercise is more obvious when it becomes a regular part of your daily routine. We understand that incorporating exercise into your daily routine can be much harder than it sounds, but there are many ways we can work around this. You can write it on a visual calendar in a common area of the house or set an appointment reminder on your smartphone. Another strategy for those who just can’t find the time is to start even with 10 minutes every few days. Once those 10 minutes become a normal part of your daily schedule, you can try adding just 5 minutes or an extra 10 minute session throughout the week. See, the beautiful thing about exercise is that there is no “best” or “ideal” way to establish a routine. The main priority should just be to amass physical activity however you see fit. Ultimately, an exercise routine might help you feel like you’ve regained some sense of control back in your life, so lace up your sneakers and go for a walk during one of your conference calls that you don’t have to speak in. Establishing a routine for healthy choices may feel selfish at first, but we at Headquarters Physical Therapy truly believe that creating space for your own health makes you more effective at caring for the health of others.

While we obviously do not know when this pandemic and “new normal” will end, we do know the importance of confronting the daily challenges we all face to making positive lifestyle decisions for the betterment of our physical and mental health. If you are having a difficult time implementing healthy routines in your daily life due to current circumstances do not hesitate to contact us for the most holistic physical therapy and nutrition coaching experience in Portland, Oregon.