As we enter our seventh week of lock-down, the impact of this bizarre situation on our mood may be becoming obvious to both ourselves and those around us. The cumulative effect of an extended period spent predominantly indoors may be, for many of us, either the beginning of difficulties with low mood or the exacerbation of a struggle that already existed.
On this blog last week, we talked about social isolation. We talked about how our relationships with others are like natural anti-depressants and that without them we can find our happiness and joy in life impaired. We then looked at what steps we can take to overcome the isolation that we might be experiencing. But what if we do not have the motivation that we used to? What if we don’t feel like socialising with others or doing the things that we used to do that brought us joy?
Why might we be feeling this way?
For Knapen et al (2014) depression is characterised by, amongst other symptoms, a loss of interest, motivation and energy, generalised fatigue, low self-worth and confidence and a fear to move. We may be struggling to motivate ourselves and feel drawn to a lethargic state, with little interest in taking part in new activities.
Though experiencing these symptoms is very common and we shouldn’t necessarily think that we have depression if we experience the above without consulting a GP or mental health service, I was struck this past week by one of my friends saying that everyday has become a ‘pyjama day’. As a result of the lock-down, we have been forced to, at least with our behaviour, replicate many of the above symptoms. We have been confined to our homes for over 6 weeks with many of us not currently working or furloughed (a loss of purpose) and with a restricted freedom to be able to do what we love.
Another significant factor may be alcohol. Many news outlets have reported that there has been an increase in alcohol consumption. Though (as talked about previously in this blog), this is not the same thing as scientific evidence, if individuals have been consuming an increased amount of alcohol, it is important to note that it is scientifically proven that increasing alcohol use increases risk of depression (Boden and Fergusson, 2011).
Essentially, the combination of decreased social contact, an inability to engage in new activities, an increase in lethargic behaviour and increased alcohol use, may place us at high risk of experiencing symptoms of depression. A kind of ‘lock-down low mood’.
What to do?
In order to cope with this, we can engage in a CBT approach called Behavioural Activation. Behavioural Activation is the process whereby we reconnect with the things that we used to enjoy doing. It is the process of developing an action plan to overcome the avoidance that can occur when we begin to feel that things are too difficult. After identifying a list of activities that are routine, pleasurable and necessary, these are then graded in order of difficulty and then planned out for the week to help it become more manageable.
You can use this link to help figure out these activities: https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/BehaviouralActivation.pdf
And this one to help organise them: https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/docs/WeeklyPlanner.pdf
It may seem that this is too obvious to help, but Behavioural Activation is scientifically proven to lift low mood and offset the symptoms of depression (Ekhers et al, 2014). As you go through this activity, it is important to remember to pace yourself, many of us have adjusted to lockdown and though we may remember being far busier, it is important to go steady to prevent becoming overwhelmed and then just abandoning the process all together. It helps to go into these activities as a scientist running experiments. I have tried sitting at home and watching Netflix and know how that makes me feel, I know the outcome of the experiment. Maybe trying out Behavioural Activation might get different results and maybe make me feel a little bit better.