Written by: Nicole Bennet
In this season of time, we can find ourselves very isolated from the entire local population. We can keep in contact through Facebook and facetime as much as we can, but we must recognize that every part of us needs socialization to survive. And I think this has become very apparent during this crisis. So a little bit of my story. I have struggled with depression for the past 12 years! There have been seasons of thriving, but there have also been seasons of isolation, darkness, and absolute hopelessness. I’ve come a long way, but even with the progress I’ve made, I find it easy to fall into some of those habits being stuck at home, without a job right now.
I do not want to make light of this situation. We are living in very scary and dangerous times. If we don’t do what we can to kill this virus off, it will continue to spread and get worse. But, I wanted to share a few things I am personally doing to combat the depression that could easily happen.
Routine- Try to create a routine for yourself during this time. Wake up and go to bed around the same time. It is so easy to let life slip through your fingertips and allow this panic to take away everything familiar with what your life was like before this. But we have to each create some sense of normalcy to keep control of our daily lives.
Communication
Do not allow yourself to self-isolate at this time. Even if you live alone, you need to continue to reach out to people when you are struggling with depression. You may not be able to see them in person right now and meet your personal need for social time, but you can reach out to your loved ones and make sure everyone is doing ok. We need each other at this time.
Rest
Take this time as an opportunity to truly learn how to rest. In today’s society, we are so busy going from one thing to the next. And we have become EXHAUSTED as a culture. This is a great time to start meeting this personal need in your life. If you don’t work to rest, this situation will increase your anxiety until it crushes you.
Seek the Lord
There is no better time than now to create space for God to speak into your life. We have boundless time to do whatever we want.
But if we don’t take advantage of our time to get to know him and trust in him, we will simply not survive this situation as well as is possible. He has peace, rest, and hope for us in the season. And all we must do to access these things is to seek him.
Recognize that this is Temporary
This concept has helped me so many times in my life. It’s easy to give in to the panic and feel like this virus is going to be forever, but we must recognize that it will not be forever. We can easily make decisions right now based out of fear and instant comfort, but if we keep in perspective that this is temporary, we can set ourselves up for success when this all does pass.