Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
Speaker 1: the Very Unprofessional podcast, whereby I talk through some of
Speaker 1: the big changes and transition of our twenties and what
Speaker 1: they mean for our psychology. Hi, how are we all?
Speaker 1: Are we managing? Struggling, coping? Let's start with a little
Speaker 1: check in moment because times are kind of depressing right
Speaker 1: now and very isolating being in lockdown, as I'm fairly
Speaker 1: sure most of us are at the moment. So how
Speaker 1: are you feeling? Really? How are you feeling? What's your
Speaker 1: body telling you you need right now? Maybe it's a nap,
Speaker 1: some social connection, a case it bears, maybe something creative.
Speaker 1: Some water. Actually, that's something I realized being in lockdown.
Speaker 1: I do not drink like any water, none, Because now
Speaker 1: I'm not at the office and using the kitchen, there's
Speaker 1: like an excuse to get up every ten minutes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, pause this episode for a bit. I
Speaker 1: promise it's not that good. Just do a little check
Speaker 1: in with your body. Go get some water, Go drink
Speaker 1: some water, give your body what she wants. Are we
Speaker 1: all back now, hydrated, happier? Good? Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: I really didn't know what to record this week. I
Speaker 1: had a bunch of episodes planned around internalized misogyny, friendship breakups,
Speaker 1: which I put on my Instagram story, dating apps, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. You know, it all just seemed
Speaker 1: a little bit trivial. And there are also episodes I
Speaker 1: want to give a bit more thought and research into,
Speaker 1: and I kind of hit the lockdown depression wall pretty
Speaker 1: hard these past three days. Let's be honest, I'm not
Speaker 1: really up for researching like a thirty minute episode on
Speaker 1: like friendship breakups right now. I feel like that would
Speaker 1: just be a little bit too much. So sorry to disappoint,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure a few of you are in the
Speaker 1: same boat. For Camber. It's been about three weeks since
Speaker 1: I last got to hug my beautiful friends and exist
Speaker 1: beyond this pattern of work and Uni walks around the
Speaker 1: neighborhood half a bottle of wine at the end of
Speaker 1: the night, and I just miss humans being messy and
Speaker 1: attractive and weird and funny. And Zoom just does not
Speaker 1: do people justice, especially the beautiful people in my life.
Speaker 1: You know, their souls are just they're too big for Zoom.
Speaker 1: They're too big. So I thought for this week we
Speaker 1: could actually address, you know, a very current moment in
Speaker 1: time topic. Let's talk about lockdown and the psychology behind wide.
Speaker 1: Lockdowns have such a profound influences on our mental health.
Speaker 1: As much as it sucks, I do feel very lucky
Speaker 1: compared to those who live alone at least to have
Speaker 1: people around me, which is really lovely. But my housemates
Speaker 1: do not give me nearly enough hugs because their love
Speaker 1: language is not physical affection, but mine is so oscar Arianna,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, please don't let me willtop and die
Speaker 1: alone in my room watching mine tunters. Please give me
Speaker 1: a hug. I need it at this point. But this
Speaker 1: is a shorter episode because I really just wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about some mental health tips for lockdown, going a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper than self care and just have a
Speaker 1: little chat while we examine how to reconnect with yourself
Speaker 1: in a time that feels really disconnected most suggest really
Speaker 1: fucking tired. So maybe the length of this episode can
Speaker 1: serve as a lesson that it's important to give ourselves,
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit of space and be extra
Speaker 1: patient around what we're capable of doing during these times.
Speaker 1: So I read this excellent article recently on the impact
Speaker 1: of lockdown on our mental health, and I think it
Speaker 1: really sums up the thought and emotional patterns I'm sure
Speaker 1: heaps of us are going through. So essentially, COVID lockdowns
Speaker 1: are the world's biggest and most profound psychological experiment like
Speaker 1: ever so since COVID emerged, five point five billion people
Speaker 1: have entered some form of lockdown, and we already have
Speaker 1: all these studies and papers being released about the impacts
Speaker 1: on people mentally and emotionally. And in short, and perhaps unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: people who are quarantined, you're very likely to develop a
Speaker 1: wide range of symptoms of just psychological stress, low mood, insomnia, stress, irritability,
Speaker 1: emotionally exhaustion, depression as well, and even post traumatic stress symptoms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but low mood and irritability specifically, they stand out as
Speaker 1: being super common. Was one study that I was reading said,
Speaker 1: and I think reasons for stress are just so abound
Speaker 1: in lockdown. There's risk of infection, the fear of becoming
Speaker 1: sick or of losing loved ones, financial hardship, being isolated
Speaker 1: from people, and all of these many more as well.
Speaker 1: They're present in this current pandemic and I think what
Speaker 1: will be really interesting to see is the long term
Speaker 1: effects of this psychologically, especially perhaps even some form of
Speaker 1: generational trauma could kind of come out of this, because
Speaker 1: it is something that very few generations have experienced to
Speaker 1: this magnitude. And I'm not at all saying that this
Speaker 1: is any sort of argument against lockdowns, because I'm not
Speaker 1: an idiot, but I do think that that context is
Speaker 1: important to be able to understand what we can do
Speaker 1: individually at the moment to keep ourselves same. So, trauma
Speaker 1: psychologists have broken down a typical pattern of response or
Speaker 1: individual phases in response to a zaster or something unexpected
Speaker 1: like a lockdown, and these stages, most people move through
Speaker 1: them when confronted with something that kind of alters the norm.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing, even if it's your second, third,
Speaker 1: seventh lockdown, these phases are still pretty much the same,
Speaker 1: even with fatigue and formative learning due to the experience
Speaker 1: of previous lockdowns. So this model that research is proposed,
Speaker 1: so when we first lockdown, when it first begins, we
Speaker 1: have this initial adaptational response. We might feel hyper focused
Speaker 1: and prepared. However, as time kind of progresses, the impact
Speaker 1: is finally really delivered which is often accompanied by that
Speaker 1: peak in stress, angst, panic. I'm sure we've all been there,
Speaker 1: and this is when we are really confronted with essentially
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation. But luckily, as the days
Speaker 1: go by, we soon enter this like honeymoon phase, as
Speaker 1: what the researchers called it, where we feel almost more
Speaker 1: comfortable in this situation. We feel we can anticipate what's
Speaker 1: coming next. We feel more settled, perhaps we even feel happier.
Speaker 1: We're thinking about all the things that we wanted to
Speaker 1: do that we can now do in lockdown. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: doing heaps of baking, heaps of drinking, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: You feel almost like it's a bit of a blessing.
Speaker 1: But we do drop off back from there, and at
Speaker 1: one point we'll just hit like an equal librium where
Speaker 1: it feels that nothing's changed. We kind of do get
Speaker 1: that sense of comfort. But as our anxiety declines and
Speaker 1: that adaptational response drops off, we do experience a growing
Speaker 1: disillusionment or numbness. So this increases with time, and although
Speaker 1: we may seem may seem engaged community and an individual
Speaker 1: adaptation to the circumstances, as time does pass, as we
Speaker 1: go through more weeks of being by ourselves or being
Speaker 1: in quarantine, things shift and people undergo a psychological transformation
Speaker 1: away from shock and action to a stillness also an
Speaker 1: emptiness as well. This is for what you know, for many,
Speaker 1: I'm sure what lockdown kind of feels like, this roller
Speaker 1: coaster of stress to elation to stillness, numbness, stagnation, especially
Speaker 1: as the novelty wears off and reality kind of sinks in.
Speaker 1: So there's this idea that a lockdown or quarantine consists
Speaker 1: of six stages for someone internally. So stage one, we've
Speaker 1: got that initial action in planning where it's just been
Speaker 1: announced and you're thinking about all the groceries you need
Speaker 1: to buy, You're thinking about all the things that you
Speaker 1: need to organize, and it's kind of like the survival mobewhere,
Speaker 1: like we have to get everything ready for this big change.
Speaker 1: And then we hit stage two and it's kind of
Speaker 1: keep calm, carry on, let's just get through this a
Speaker 1: lot of unknowns, and then stage three. So stage three
Speaker 1: is kind of like that honeymoon phase that these trauma
Speaker 1: psychologists thought of. So it's a sense of elation often
Speaker 1: associated with like a productivity frenzy, you know, you're just
Speaker 1: throwing yourself into new projects, throwing yourself to union work,
Speaker 1: exercising heaps. And then we hit stage four, which is
Speaker 1: that paralysis and anxiety I was talking about. And then
Speaker 1: stage five, so slowing down, kind of getting into the
Speaker 1: groove of it. You know, you've had time to adjust
Speaker 1: to this, you feel that you're kind of are capable
Speaker 1: of understanding what's going And then we have stage six,
Speaker 1: which I'm sure a lot of us are in now,
Speaker 1: which is just numbness and the new kind of normal,
Speaker 1: like some people call it like a lump mode, just
Speaker 1: like boredom, stagnation kind of not having anything going on.
Speaker 1: And burnout is also a really big part of this
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, I can definitely relate to this
Speaker 1: right now. I think I kind of switch between stage
Speaker 1: six and stage four. Especially stage six at the moment.
Speaker 1: I have felt so burnt out recently. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how many other people have felt this way, but I
Speaker 1: just cannot motivate myself at all. I just feel really
Speaker 1: tired and just move periodically from my desk to my bed,
Speaker 1: to my phone to my kitchen, you know, for another
Speaker 1: cup of green tea that I'm kind of hoping or
Speaker 1: simultaneously calming down and motivate me. So I'm just a
Speaker 1: bit confused by the point of existing at the moment,
Speaker 1: but it was really useful to kind of read that
Speaker 1: this is a normal pattern that we tend to go
Speaker 1: through when we're confronted with something like a lockdown or
Speaker 1: like a disaster and a burnout. I burnout is as
Speaker 1: a big thing to watch out for in this time,
Speaker 1: especially after that period of heightened anxiety and adapting to
Speaker 1: a new normal, moving away from getting stimulation, from going
Speaker 1: out to bars and seeing people and having activities to do.
Speaker 1: It's a hard adjustment and it does place a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on our coping mechanisms and an our nervous
Speaker 1: system as well. So burnout it's, like I said, really
Speaker 1: something to look out for in this time and make
Speaker 1: sure you're checking in with yourself. It often looks like
Speaker 1: mental exhaustion, really irritable, reduce concentration, detachment, and decreased satisfaction
Speaker 1: with your accomplishments. It can also make it harder to
Speaker 1: get things done, which I've been seeing a lot within
Speaker 1: myself at the moment and a big contributing factor to
Speaker 1: burn out. I've been feeling at least, is this lack
Speaker 1: of distinction between my personal and my home life, my
Speaker 1: leisure relaxing space, and then work and UNI as well.
Speaker 1: There is just no separation between work and the times
Speaker 1: when I'm just relaxing or doing my hobbies or other things.
Speaker 1: You only have the space your home allows you to
Speaker 1: kind of create, and that necessary separation of your work life,
Speaker 1: especially working from home, and your socializing life or your
Speaker 1: relaxed safety relaxation time. It's really hard in your twenties,
Speaker 1: especially when we live in small sharehouses or apartments with roommates.
Speaker 1: It's just really fucking hard. So I'll find myself using
Speaker 1: my room for everything, which makes it really hard to
Speaker 1: switch off firstly, but also really hard to switch on
Speaker 1: when I have to do tasks or accomplish things that
Speaker 1: are work related. Like I said, productivity has definitely taken
Speaker 1: a huge nose dive. But a really interesting research paper
Speaker 1: I read on this, however, offered some really good suggestions
Speaker 1: for creating distinctions between different activities in your mind whilst
Speaker 1: you are unable to create physically distinct places or go
Speaker 1: anywhere so like the office or the library. Essentially, what
Speaker 1: the research is in this paper I read suggested you
Speaker 1: do is create like different stations around your house or
Speaker 1: your living space that are uniquely associated with one task
Speaker 1: or activity that you do on a daily basis. So,
Speaker 1: for example, your desk is for UNI work and uniwork
Speaker 1: on the dining table is for paid work. I guess
Speaker 1: your bed is for rest and the couches for TV.
Speaker 1: And you cannot do any other task in the station
Speaker 1: that you've associated with one other, or the universe just explodes.
Speaker 1: That's the lesson. You have to keep them distinct. And
Speaker 1: this is a really good method separating your space. It's
Speaker 1: really good for increasing productivity and giving some form of
Speaker 1: routine and nuance to the hours in your day. And
Speaker 1: I did try this. It did really help for a while,
Speaker 1: but then it got really rainy and cold outside, and
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you just want to watch your lectures
Speaker 1: in bed. But if you have the space and the discipline,
Speaker 1: I would definitely recommend. There is evidence behind this really
Speaker 1: helping creating those little stations. And I'm sure we've all
Speaker 1: heard this before, but creating structure around your days daily rituals,
Speaker 1: a specific wake up time that one's really crucial, a
Speaker 1: time when you exercise, when you eat your meals and
Speaker 1: go to bed. It's really helpful for establishing normalcy and
Speaker 1: getting your mind off of what else is going on.
Speaker 1: And I know it's a lot harder than we make
Speaker 1: it out to be because there is nothing else kind
Speaker 1: of enforcing a structure upon you. But I think eventually
Speaker 1: a lockdown ends and you've got to be able to
Speaker 1: move back into everyday life. So trying to keep up
Speaker 1: as many of those habits as you can is really
Speaker 1: helpful in the long term. The other thing I really
Speaker 1: stand by is planning pleasurable activities. So this is a
Speaker 1: behavioral strategy that's often used for managing depression. So it's
Speaker 1: called pleasant activity scheduling, and it really helps boost your mood,
Speaker 1: especially at times when it's really difficult to find things
Speaker 1: to plan for. You know, there's not much to look
Speaker 1: forward to because things are just so uncertain. Essentially, as
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can guess, it involved periodically planning things
Speaker 1: that you enjoy at different intervals, so you know, on Monday,
Speaker 1: as do my friends on Tuesday, or to uber eats
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, I paint something or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: And it's a form of behavioral activation that allows you
Speaker 1: to feel more in control of your mood by giving
Speaker 1: you a pick me up at scheduled times to keep
Speaker 1: your happiness high, which we do love would love to
Speaker 1: see that. I think. Another really hard part of lockdowns
Speaker 1: and quarantine in general is that there is very little
Speaker 1: that can replace human connection. I will be honest, I
Speaker 1: have spent a large amount of time looking at the
Speaker 1: RSPCA website thinking this would be a great time to
Speaker 1: adopt a cat. That is a delusional thought. I do
Speaker 1: not need to adopt a cat, but it does show
Speaker 1: that we do need some form of simulation or connection
Speaker 1: to other living creatures. When we're deprived of human interactions,
Speaker 1: our brain literally loses white matter. In lab animals, for example,
Speaker 1: I remember this is a really common study that you
Speaker 1: learn about in many psychology courses. Basically, experiment is they
Speaker 1: isolate lab rants or lab animals, and that isolation is
Speaker 1: shown to cause brain shrinkage and it can lead to
Speaker 1: an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and these animals, so
Speaker 1: it's imperative that we keep up those social ties, keep
Speaker 1: reaching out, keep trying to do things. And if you
Speaker 1: are feeling deprived of touch or connection, this is kind
Speaker 1: of sad, But a really good strategy I've found is
Speaker 1: to clasp your hands together and close your eyes. It
Speaker 1: is a proven psychological method for imitating human touch. And
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes a girl has to do it. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to hold someone's hand, it may as well
Speaker 1: be my own. And we do hear those basic strategies
Speaker 1: of you know, calling a friend, reaching out, but sometimes
Speaker 1: it is human touch that we really do need. And
Speaker 1: a warm shower is also really useful. Dancing as well.
Speaker 1: It allows us to feel more connect did with our
Speaker 1: bodies in a way that we so often look to
Speaker 1: human touch or sex for so dancing feeling like the
Speaker 1: movement in your body, feeling connected to your limbs, it's
Speaker 1: a really great way to feel attached to the physical
Speaker 1: present and your physical form. Finally, if you're feeling super
Speaker 1: stressed or panicky, as it's still understandable at this time,
Speaker 1: there are some really helpful things that you can do
Speaker 1: when you're alone and you can't really reach out to others. Firstly,
Speaker 1: I heard this tip ages ago, but eat a meal
Speaker 1: or eat something so Eating helps calm the nervous system
Speaker 1: because it activates our digestive system, which is one of
Speaker 1: the first systems. Our brain shuts down in moments of panic.
Speaker 1: So essentially, by eating and putting something in your stomach,
Speaker 1: you're communicating with your nervous system this message that you know,
Speaker 1: if we were stressed, we wouldn't be eating, and if
Speaker 1: we're in danger, you know, we wouldn't be snacking on
Speaker 1: almonds because we would be fleeing. So it tricks the
Speaker 1: brain into calming down by kind of it using this
Speaker 1: form of buy feedback. Whether you're able to control these
Speaker 1: biological flight flight or fight mechanisms by telling your body
Speaker 1: that's really nothing to worry about. And just some more
Speaker 1: basic examples. I'm sure you can look these up on
Speaker 1: the internet, but if you're listening, maybe this is helpful.
Speaker 1: So breathing exercises, vigorous exercise, or finally putting something really
Speaker 1: cold on your wrists or going outside in the cold.
Speaker 1: This helps cool you down, but it also diverts blood
Speaker 1: back into your brain and back into your heart and
Speaker 1: centralizes you a bit more. Okay, Like I said, this
Speaker 1: episode is all over the place. This was just kind
Speaker 1: of a roller coaster of strategies. But I think we
Speaker 1: way too often find ourselves talking about self care, which
Speaker 1: is great you know, sure self care is kind of
Speaker 1: lauded as this huge mental health antidote, but it's really
Speaker 1: not a full solution. You know, doing a face mask
Speaker 1: is great, it's nice, but it's not really going to
Speaker 1: quell the psychological trauma of going through a pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know any company that makes a good enough
Speaker 1: face mask for that. But bigger habits and strategies they
Speaker 1: do need to be established. So hopefully this is somewhat useful.
Speaker 1: This is just kind of what I've been learning, what
Speaker 1: I've been seeing in myself. I also just feel like
Speaker 1: this was kind of like a rundown that I needed
Speaker 1: to be like, yes, a reminder we can get through this.
Speaker 1: You know, our brain is something that we're not at
Speaker 1: the whims of. Like we can control how our body
Speaker 1: reacts to stressful situations, and this is a really shitty time.
Speaker 1: I've been watching a lot of mind Hunters, which hasn't
Speaker 1: really helped, but is a really good show if you
Speaker 1: want to add something onto the watch list on Netflix.
Speaker 1: What else have I been doing? Spending a lot of
Speaker 1: money at the IgA, just buying like done stuff like chocolate,
Speaker 1: moose and sushi. I'm not really sure, how essentil those are,
Speaker 1: but there's really only so many times you can eat
Speaker 1: the same Hello Fresh meals. I think before you get
Speaker 1: kind of tired of like chicken and potatoes and del Mao.
Speaker 1: And if you have Hello Fresh, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, the fucking del Mao. You know you know
Speaker 1: when I'm talking about. But we will get through this,
Speaker 1: I say, very unconvincingly. We can get through this. And
Speaker 1: in all honesty, I'm wishing you all God's speed. This
Speaker 1: podcast has been such a lifeline for me, so thanks
Speaker 1: for all the support and love, and I'm giving it
Speaker 1: right back. And look, you can hear it raining because
Speaker 1: I'm recording this in my car. How nice got that
Speaker 1: the rain's coming out? Micro have a nap. It's very calming.
Speaker 1: And yeah, stay COVID safe, take care of yourselves. I
Speaker 1: promise next week I will have a more interesting episode
Speaker 1: rather than just me rambling about self care and coping
Speaker 1: strategies that I'm sure we all know. But if you
Speaker 1: found it useful, yeah, that's the only thing. And I
Speaker 1: found it useful for myself. So take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: stay COVID safe, connect with friends. There's so much love
Speaker 1: out there. And I'll be back now Squeak with an
Speaker 1: episode that is I promise you a bit more exciting