Life is upside down. The pandemic is a perfect recipe for adverse mental health – isolation, loss of purpose and meaning, and stress (relationally, financially, emotionally). There is a reason solitary confinement drives anyone to insanity. We are locked up without our usual routines, many are resorting to unhealthy behaviors to cope and all of the things a pre-covid, busy life covered up have been exposed. What was a little anxiety is now unbearable, what was B’s and C’s is now D’s and F’s, what was a little marriage trouble is now a marriage on the brink of divorce. Look up the study on dogs and “learned helplessness” – without a sense of control over our lives and perceiving ourselves as unable to take steps to resolve ongoing pain and crisis we begin to sink into despair and depression. This is cross-species.
We need support and connection. We need to be with others. We need to feel heard, felt, and understood. We need strategies to navigate our individual mental health, relationships, and the particular issues we are facing. Don’t underestimate the power of the macro social situation pushing down on us all, it has become the water in our fishbowl and we have adjusted for better or worse. We don’t do our best thinking in these moments, but there are professionals with years of training and experience available to you. We are a group of them. Please reach out to us if you are struggling. It is not hopeless, we will help you get through this. Therapy is an extremely powerful tool and it’s a phone call away. We have dozens of safety measures in place and have had not a single health issue occur in our practice throughout the pandemic. Safety is a priority above all else in our offices.
I also urge you to connect with a local therapist, it is an extremely different and more beneficial format for therapy versus many of the large-scale, digital services available (e.g. Betterhelp, ect). Many report being disappointed with the help there and become even more hopeless and unwilling to try therapy in the future – this is not the standard of care and is not consistent with the care you will get in ours and other local professionals practices. Lastly, if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or urges and it is outside of business hours please call the national suicide hotline at 800-273-8255.
We are thinking of all of you out in the community. Give us a call if you think we can be of help. We would be glad to answer any questions and direct you to the right place.
Keil Psych Group
714-334-5497
