Coping With COVID Fatigue

Campus news sites are reporting a phenomenon shared by some of my students, and maybe by you, too. If you feel you are in a ‘constant state of exhaustion,’ finding it hard to keep up with the work, and finding it hard to cope with the stress, you are in company with the 84 percent of stressed students in one UBC, survey (Jared Yu in The Ubyssey 2021-03-16).

I’m not going to list the factors building into COVID fatigue, as you’d have to be living under a rock to be unaware of them. I invite you to accept that there is nothing wrong with you for being stressed out–the situation really does suck!

So what to do. First, let’s assume that the preferred option is to complete the term with a reasonable, if not perfect, grade. Second, this is not the time for the ultimate pep talk. What it is time for is a realistic look at what you can do just to get through.

Looking at where you are, list on paper the frustrations and fears that are weighing you down. The things I hear about include: 

-edginess over uncertainty,

-a strong, strong desire to get outside,

-wanting to see friends,

-frustration with ZOOM lectures,

-resentment over unexpected technical glitches,

-unpleasant exam routines.

The list goes on. We’ve done all the right stuff for a year now–hey it’s time! We don’t want this. We don’t deserve this. It’s not fair! Will I ever make it? You’ve got a right to your anger, frustration and fear: It’s the right to be human.

But what to do? I can’t think of anything better than the AA mantra–accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can, and know the difference. We can’t change the COVID realities, but we can change how they affect our thoughts and feelings. I’ve modified a checklist from another campus (Kaye Hermanson, in the UC Davis Newsroom, 2020-07-07) to share with you. Feel free to adapt and modify further.

• Exercise. Observe health hygiene.
  • Even if you don’t feel like it, just do it. Walk. Stretch. Dance.
  • Eat well.
  • Sleep.
• Talk with friends.
  • Everyday, talk with a friend, a relative.
  • Talk about more than how awful COVID is. Vent if you have to, then get on to other topics. Share coping pointers.
• Talk with a counsellor.
  • Particularly if you are finding hard to manage anxiety, if you are having trouble sleeping, or if you just feel your emotional/mental wellbeing could use a boost.
• Think constructively.
  • Limit your exposure to stressors where you can–you only need to check the COVID updates often enough to be aware of campus policy and required behaviour for you and your family.
  • Use positive distractors, even if it’s only an uplifting home screen with frolicking animals.
  • Aim for acceptable, not perfect.
  • Remind yourself that you really are doing the best you can in a tough situation.
  • Take the secure thought that by continuing to follow and adapt your plan, you will do better than if you don’t.
• Meditate. 
  • Use whatever level of meditation you are at to find your centre throughout the day.
  • When frustration, anger or fear begin to occupy your mind, in the words of K’naan–just take a minute, and let it ride, just take a minute, let it breathe.

These techniques do not resolve the realities of life with COVID. But they can help us cope and get through.

I hope some of these tips are useful for you. It’s not fun, it’s not what we want. It’s been a tough marathon, and you are on the last laps. It’s about getting to the finish line. The runner may have rolled an ankle, be seeing spots, and feeling pain. To make it to the finish line, they visualize that line, breathe, hydrate, and keep on keeping on.

That is what you have done thus far. You’ve kept on through a situation tougher than that faced by any student cohort in the last hundred years. Give yourself credit for the strength you have shown, the courage, the adaptability you’ve exercised. Not perfectly, but enough to get this far. You rock, student. 

Let me know how it’s going, and if these have been useful for you. [email protected]