How to Deal with Anxiety When You're Always at Home?

These days, everyone is having a hard time. We asked a psychologist to explain why, while staying at home in quarantine, we feel anxious and how to best cope with it. We also collected a few ideas that will help you switch things up.

Irina Kamaradina — Practicing Psychologist, Neuro psychologist

Lately, I'm often asked how to deal with anxiety and lift your mood during isolation. But here's the issue: generic answers won't work for everyone, and they're often too general (most people don’t need such generic advice).

So why do people ask these questions? Usually, it’s to distract themselves from their fears and feel part of the shared anxiety.

Ask yourself: what are you really afraid of? Usually, the source of anxiety isn’t fear of danger, but limitations that everyone had to face.

During restrictions, you lose personal control and the ability to make decisions. For a person, it’s like a parental ban, which our inner ‘child’ can’t ignore.

Let’s figure out: how do you react?

• Quietly staying at home and waiting for freedom of action.
• Feeling angry and dissatisfied with the restrictions.
• Happy, that someone made a decision for you and let you rest for three weeks.
• Intensely defending your rights: you’re an adult and decide what to do (but still don’t leave the house).

Whose anxiety is stronger?
Those who internally resist external restrictions. If you want to worry less, you’ll have to accept and reconcile with them.

That’s when adaptation to new living conditions begins, and resources for tasks you didn’t have time or courage for before start emerging. Life slows down, but you’ll have more energy.

What problems might prevent acceptance of the situation?

• You’re used to living at a fast pace and are not a homebody at all. You’ll have to completely restructure your schedule and adapt. You’ll need to come up with ways to move more (morning runs through empty parks or home workouts).
• You find it hard to organize yourself at home. Try separating your workspace from non-work areas, clearly dividing work and rest time. About effective remote work, we wrote here. And about setting up a mini-office — here.
• You live in a small space and share it with other residents. Here, you just need to agree.
• You work in the service industry and completely depend on clients. Unfortunately, it all depends on a specific situation. Try looking at the issue from another angle.
  
• You fear being alone with yourself and need social interaction. Organize daily video calls with friends or meet someone online.

What else can you do to keep yourself busy?

• Practice yoga and meditation. This helps relax and distract from anxiety. You can also write down pleasant moments of the day in a journal or create a visualization board every evening.
• Do some cleaning and organize old clothes you haven’t used in a long time. This is also a form of meditation — you’ll feel lighter once you get rid of unnecessary items. About where to donate old clothes, we wrote here. And how to organize your wardrobes — here.
• Cook something unusual. Try your hand at presentation, since going to a restaurant isn’t possible right now. We have many great recipes for all kinds of dishes, not just porridge! :)
• Take care of the microclimate. Order a humidifier or air purifier, plant some greenery so you feel comfortable at home. You can read more about a healthy indoor climate in our article.
• Start learning something new. Most educational resources are offering free access to their programs for all users. If you’ve always wanted to learn something, now is a great chance.
• Renovate old furniture. Changing your surroundings can help distract you from negative thoughts. If you don’t have the option to buy new furniture or decor, check out our DIY and “Renovation” sections — we have many cool ideas.

Want even more ideas?

Then we have 55 cozy home activities for you! Now you definitely have something to do during quarantine :)