Quarantine / loneliness. My goal?

Hi, It is normal to feel stressed staying indoors and away from family, especially when that is added to the underlying stress of worrying about job, past relationships. If it is not addressed soon, chances of developing a mental health issue, like anxiety or depression are high. Strategies to handle such situations. Ensure your well-being and good mental health. Most of these involve either finding ways to distract yourself (keep busy) or finding ways to connect with others (despite the circumstances).

Try below tips and tricks, and if you are not able to do or overcome, it's smart or wise decision to take mental health professional help.

1. Distraction works to help you avoid procrastination, ruminating about everything that is wrong. In this way, taking on little projects or finding other forms of distraction can help to keep your mood level. 2. Keep to a Schedule Try to keep to a regular schedule as much as possible. While loneliness can feel like it will never end, trying to make these days feel as "normal" as possible will help you to get through. Start each day with a plan of a few things that you will do, keep a daily diary about how you are feeling and what you are doing. All of these tracking systems will help you to feel like you are being proactive about the situation. 3.  Stay Informed People who had up to date health information and advice on precautionary measures had better psychological functioning and resilience. Limit your media consumption, watching too much news, reading too many articles, and consuming too much content can be overwhelming. Make sure you seek sites that give factual information about what you can do to stay healthy, WHO, MoHFW, ICMR etc.. 4. Stay Active Our physical and mental health are delicately intertwined. Do home based activities that you can keep doing to stay active. Practice yoga, or at-home low impact workouts by following Youtube videos Go for walks around your neighborhood. 5.Do Something Meaningful Another contributor to feelings of loneliness can be a loss of sense of meaning. Doing something meaningful each day, even if only for a short period, will give you a sense of purpose and identity. Sign up for an online course and do a bit of work each day Create a family tree using genealogy websites Sign up to be an online volunteer. 6.Connect With Others Perhaps the best thing you can do to combat loneliness during this period of isolation is to connect with others. While you may not be able to visit with family and friends in person, that does not mean that you cannot connect. Family & Friends Call someone on the telephone. Place calls using video chat services like Facetime or whatsapp or skype etc Post on social media or respond to other's posts on social media 7. Distract Yourself Read Watch TV/movies Create or listen to music Plan for future 8. Practice self compassion 9.  Good and balanced diet 10. Good enough refreshing sleep

Right now you are under tremendous stress. Your current mental state is not conducive to deal with these issues that are plaguing you

Think only one day at a time. try doing something about loneliness. consult a mental health expert of not sure how to go about it.

eat healthy, exercise regularly, have 8 hours of sleep. try and get in touch with your friends who have drifted away

Hi, it’s quite understandable that you can get stressed during this period. Make sure you are updated about the facts about the pandemic by looking at websites of WHO and MOHFW. Do not look at messages on social media for information. It will cause more anxiety. Accept that you can do very little about the current situation. Speak to your family through video calls so that you can feel comfortable knowing they are safe. Plan your day one at a time. Give importance to work which requires high priority. Look for exercises on you tube which you can do from home. Start some new activity which you can enjoy. Meditate and pray for a few minutes everyday. Speak to a psychiatrist if you feel stress is building up.