Quarantine Fatigue has affected us and we need to adapt and learn to ease into the new normal by learning how to recognize this kind of Fatigue and how to deal with it.
First off, Quarantine Fatigue though it may look different from person to person, may be defined as an exhaustion associated with the new restrictive lifestyle brought upon by the pandemic. as Dr. Luana Marques, President of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America has defined it.
Quarantine Fatigue comes from Chronic Stress
We need to know how it has affected us, whether we are aware of it or not, to determine what we can do to prevent it, spot its effect and address them as quickly as possible, in addition to knowing how to handle relationships with the people we are stuck with, as well as people who are close to us but cannot be with.
The Virtual Talk was opened by Ms. Tes Veloso, Senior Director Vendor Strategy & Relationship Management and Site Officer, Thomson Reuters Manila.
Special Guests includes Husband and Wife tandem of Dr. Allan Dionisio and Maribel Dionisio. Dr. Allan is a family medicine practitioner and a clinical toxicologist. He is also the chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. Ms. Maribel on the other hand, has been a relationship and parenting consultant for over 25 years. For the last 5 years, she was a weekly relationship expert for Radyo Singko 92.3 FM’s Relasyon noontime program and was also a regular parenting expert at ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda.
The Love Institute’s vision is to equip every individual with the knowledge and skills they need for their particular relationship stage – Single Life, Engagement, Married Life, Parenting and Family, and Marriage Enhancement.
Quarantine Fatigue Symptoms
* Physical fatigue, loss of energy
* Irritability
* Disturbed sleep (too much or too little)
* Eating too much or too little
* Anxiety (new or aggravated)
* Apathy, lethargy, lack of motivation
* Emotional Lability
* Loneliness and Disconnection
* Feelings of Hopelessness
* Sadness and Depression
* Persistent desire or actual attempts to break quarantine
There are different sources of chronic stress
-Worry about getting sick and dying and the stigma when you actually get the virus
-Worry about the loss of a loved one, loss of job and income
-Conflicts due to being physically together longer than usual
-Cabin fever
-Infodemic
-Loneliness and isolation from being cut off from friends and family
These sources of chronic stress when piled up for a long period of time can cause increase of risk for anxiety and depression, weakens the immune system, degrades our ability to cope with stress which is a vicious cycle. Due to long period of isolation, a person can feel lonely and can increase the risk of all cause mortality by 29%, cardiovascular disease by 50%, and for those with the highest levels of social isolation, it doubles the risk of death from heart attacks.
The good news is, we can deal with Quarantine Fatigue
- Physical Activity – short but regular physical activity can reduce stress, improve mood and mental clarity, release happy hormones, sense of control over your well-being, increase motivation, focus and learning ability and lastly, can stimulate rest and relaxation.
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Viktor E. Frankl
- Mindfulness – We can practice mindfulness through our mindful breathing. We need to fact check all the information we recieve, discern and digest it before we react. Our responses should be of reasonable assumption and to do it, we have to think of ways on handling our problems and of course, choose the better, if not best, way to do it.
- Building Strong Relationships – in this quaratine, what we need to come through is simplified by having the 4 friends principle who would go through a roof for us. If you don’t have them yet, write who would you like them to be and make a plan to strengthen those friendships. If you have more than 4, then you are blessed. Treasure friends.
Three Factors for lasting friendship includes similar core values, emotional maturity and authentic love. These can be developed using the 3C’s of relationships.
C – Calendar daily friends chat or meet-up
C – show Caring behaviors
C – Communicate regularly and well
The Virtual Talk also held a Panel Discussion with Ms. Kay Emralino, Thomson Reuters Judicial Operations Group Leader, Mr. Bong Roa Yu, Thomson Reuters Operations Manager for Rules and Regulations Legal Content, and Ms. Lilibeth Repolidon, Thomas Reuters Collection Teams Leader.
My takeaways on this very timely talk, is that we need to connect regularly and we need to connect with people well. We can do fun activities even virtually and also observe friendly tone when speaking especially to our dear family members and friends.
Balance is the key when it comes to Quarantine Fatigue, we need to find time to sustain our spiritual, emotional, financial, intellectual, environmental, physical and social aspects of our lives, and who we choose to be friends/connected with can determine and bend our core values, too.
Lastly, we should practice to PAUSE.
Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you’re about to react harshly and you’ll avoid doing and saying things you’ll regret later.
Gerilen and Jer Sons 