Running, hiking or swimming in the Pacific. Social distanced picnics and outdoor movies. Many Peninsula residents had been venturing outdoors to cope with the restlessness and isolation of a life spent mostly at home.
Open-air areas have been deemed the only permissible spaces to meet a friend or eat a restaurant meal. Now, as the Bay Area is choked by fires on all sides, air quality indexes in some areas have reached “hazardous” levels. As the wildfires and COVID-19 crises conflate, both indoor and outdoor spaces present risks to Northern California residents. Many are staying home with their windows tightly shut. Some have lost their homes altogether to the flames.
Whether immediately affected by the wildfires or merely distressed by the smoke, Peninsula residents are struggling to cope.
“There is so much focus on physical dangers right now but mental health is important too,” said Julie Lustig, a San Mateo-based psychologist whose work centers around children, families and young adults.
As many families are further confined to their homes due to poor air, Lustig sees parents experiencing greater strain, and their anxieties about the fires engulfing the region rub off on their children as well.
Andrea Cook, a San Mateo-based psychologist, works with clients from a “mind-body-spirit approach to health.” Cook emphasized the importance of rest, sleep and healthy eating so Peninsula residents can bolster their “physical resources” to manage stress. Cook acknowledged the difficulty in not being able to go outside and recommended that people find a space to “go get quiet,” somewhere where they can put on headphones and rest in solitude.
Cook recognized the very real and difficult fears of needing to evacuate or losing a home. She recommends assigning a worry time to create a crisis plan, and then visualizing putting those anxieties away in a box.
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“Worrying all the time ruins your ability to make change,” Cook said.
San Mateo psychologist Eunice Song, whose work centers around adults and group therapy sessions, is also seeing her patients struggle with a lot of heightened anxiety. Song recommends a technique in which people first identify what emotions they are feeling, such as anxiety, sadness or isolation. Then, she advises her patients to use that emotion as information and guidance in how to respond. If you can identify that you are feeling anxious, take deep breaths. If you feel isolated, reach out for help and social support.
Lustig, Cook and Song all underlined the practice of “self-compassion,” being attentive to one’s individual needs and forgiving to oneself. Especially for parents or those who are particularly responsible for caring for others, it can be increasingly difficult to take time for one’s own needs. Lustig, Cook and Song emphasized that it is OK to not hold oneself to usual prepandemic standards.
Lustig also underscored the importance of mindfulness, focusing on the current moment. That might look like telling yourself or your family “right here, right now we are OK and safe” and focusing on taking it one day at a time.
Lustig, Cook and Song all want those in the Bay Area to continue to take it day by day and have hope and resilience.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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