CP Teens Guest Blog: Anxiety during lockdown

Hey all, 

​

This is the blog I wrote for CP Teens Guest Blog. Hope you enjoy it!

 

Hope everyone’s ok, keeping safe and well at this unpredictable and strange time. When I first heard about Coronavirus, I naturally felt anxious and concerned about the virus, but after I got over the realisation about what was going on, I settled down into staying at home and made sure I kept busy. I have found that I am happier and a lot more relaxed than I was when we were all going out and had a ‘normal’ routine. 

 

It has actually made me a better person, making me realise what is important in life and what really isn’t. It has taught me to not to take everything so serious and treat everyday as a new day, don't hold grudges because there are more issues going on in the world to carry on with our problems, its just easier to move on and think how positive we can be. 

 

Before Coronavirus and lockdown, I was very busy with going to the gym, doing work placements and just generally going out for leisure. So when we went into lockdown, I thought how will I stay busy and thought I would be so bored. But within a few weeks, I felt so happy with doing my exercise and chilling with lots relaxing activities like reading and watching Netflix - I haven't had time to become stressed and anxious. I just want to say to if you are feeling low or dissatisfied about the situation, plan your day around positive and great things that will keep you occupied and happy, whatever you are interested in - it could be reading, writing, video games, watching films or shows etc. Things like these will relieve any stress or concerns about the pandemic and just keep the anxiety down, allowing people to feel calm. 

 

Anxiety is hard to cope with anyway but especially on lockdown, I feel for those that have really bad anxiety as they may get bored and down really easily. I would say as I sometimes suffer with anxiety is to try to occupy the mind with something that they enjoy and keeps them from constantly thinking about the negative. Take something that makes you feel negative and try to turn it into a positive. This will make you feel happier and then it will change your mindset of something that you feel anxious about. I assume that over lockdown people have experienced a type of anxiety or concern but keeping ourselves safe and distracting ourselves with lots to do will keep our minds off the obvious that is causing us worry. 

 

As we slowly come out of lockdown, I am getting nervous and anxious about what will be our new ‘normal’ but I am certainly not rushing into doing anything that I don't feel entirely comfortable with. I'm going to take my time and do things when I feel safe to do so. We all just need our own time to do what we feel comfortable with and safe to do. So I know there will be people out there that they are feeling a lot of different emotions about going back to a new normal and that's ok to feel that way. 

 

If I could say anything, it would be it is perfectly normal to have anxiety throughout or after lockdown and nobody should feel guilty about any emotions that they are having. Just do what you feel comfortable with and make sure you are happy with your choices.