Why Do I Feel So Bad Lately? - Coping with Stress & Covid-19 Pandemic

Feb 16

If you’ve been feeling more tired, low, overwhelmed, or “blah” lately, you are not alone in that.

From clients, family and friends, and even my own experience, it seems that a lot of people have been feeling a shift within the past week or so.

I believe there are a number of factors contributing to this pattern.

First and foremost: We are almost one year into this pandemic. This means you may not have seen family or friends for a significant amount of time. This means your lifestyle has likely been impacted in some way. If you’ve been working or doing school from home, you have not been leaving your house much and have had a huge change in your routine for almost one year.

Now add to that, for many of us, we’ve hit the brutally cold and snowy part of the year, and you’ve got a recipe for mood changes and increased stress and anxiety. With the gross weather during the pandemic (can you tell I’m not a fan of winter?), we are not able to freely and comfortably do things that may have helped us cope with winter in the past, such as going to restaurants or bars, having family and friends over to your house, traveling, and going to other indoor places.

There is light at the end of this almost one year long tunnel, but it seems like the cold weather has made it harder for many to feel hopeful about that.

It also seems like our capacity for stress has been negatively impacted.

We all start with varying levels of tolerance for stress, with some people able to manage higher levels of stress more effectively than others.

But with the ongoing traumatic and stressful event that we have all been experiencing, it seems like many people have a lower capacity for stress. If this speaks to you, there is nothing wrong with you. We all have our limits for how much we can take, and this past year has tested those limits time and time again.

When there is a heightened level of stress, it can feel harder to cope. It can feel like our usual coping strategies aren’t as helpful as they used to be. Although this sucks, it is also normal.

How to manage high levels of stress?

Talk to or spend time with a trusted family member, friend, or mental health professional. You don’t have to talk about really deep things right now. Sometimes when everything feels so heavy, we need a reprieve. We need a person or place where we can go to just be. Even in therapy, there are times when I just need to sit with my clients. Sitting in a safe place with a safe person is what they need most in those moments, and it’s okay if that’s what you need right now.
Move around. This is an important way for everyone to relax mind and body. It seems especially important for those who have been spending most of their time at home. Personally, I notice a huge difference in how I feel mentally and physically on days when I use my standing desk versus days I sit down for most of the day.
Relax your mind and body with something like deep breathing, a warm bath, massage, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, and getting enough sleep.

Allow yourself to cry. This is one way to complete the body and mind’s stress response cycle. I just started reading Burnout, which has been great so far. It is helpful in learning about and understanding the body’s physiological stress response cycle and how to complete that cycle - aka feel less stressed.

I say all of this to say: you are not alone if you are having a hard time.

There is a pandemic. It’s cold. Our lives have been greatly impacted by all of this, so it only makes sense that our mental health would be impacted, too.

One way to get through this and to eventually start the healing process is to make sure you are taking care of yourself in some way, no matter how small it may seem, as often as you can.