As daily Covid-19 cases reach beyond the 1000 case mark - the highest New Zealand has seen - it is natural to be feeling a bit anxious. Re: asked a pharmacist and a psychologist about how we can prepare ourselves.
Paracetamol, nasal spray, throat lozenges, cough or chest relief medicine and a thermometer are the items Donna Kerr, from Life Pharmacy in Invercargill, recommends for a Covid-19 preparation kit.
“Electrolytes are also good if you are finding it hard to eat or drink enough water,” Kerr says.
Then there are the key basics like extra face masks, tissues, soap, and hand sanitiser.
“It’s a good idea to have a closed bin to dispose of used tissues or face masks so they won’t contaminate anything else.”
If you can, Kerr also recommends buying a pulse oximeter - a device that measures your blood oxygen levels and heart rate - from your local pharmacy or online from stores like Grab One or Mighty Ape. There is a range of different oximeters at different price points.
According to Health Navigator New Zealand, having a pulse rate of 50 to 99bpm and oxygen saturation levels of 95 to 100 is acceptable.
If your oxygen saturation falls between 92 to 94 and your pulse rate is between 100 to 119bpm, seek help.
If oxygen saturation levels fall below 92 and your pulse rate is at 120bpm or more, call 111.
Lastly, Kerr says it’s just as important to make sure you have a stash of your usual daily medicines and have up-to-date prescriptions.
“If you get sick and you want the pharmacy to deliver for you, we can. But you've got to understand we're under pressure as well. We are trying to keep up the supply for everybody - so things like deliveries take a key person out of the mix.”
“So it's really about forward planning and creating a buddy system with your friends and family so that if one person goes down, you know who to call to help you out,” Kerr says.
When it comes to mentally preparing ourselves for the steep rise in cases, clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland says it’s about finding the balance of what we can and can’t control.
He says it’s important to keep up with the things that protect us mentally and physically like daily exercise and mask wearing.
But people also have to learn to accept that some things are out of their control - so it is important to find ways to cope with that so we can still live our normal lives.
He has four pieces of advice to help do this:
Limit how much media we consume each day
If regularly reading or watching the news makes you feel anxious or stressed, Sutherland recommends limiting how often you check in with media updates.
“It is sensible to keep informed if you want to,” he says.
“But maybe pick a couple of times a day to catch up, say in the morning or early evening - but not before you go to bed. Scrolling through your phone in bed is probably going to affect your sleep.”
Prescribe yourself a “worry time”
If a worry is on your mind and constantly interrupting your day, Sutherland recommends dedicating a set time in your day to think this through.
“We spend time trying to push our anxiety away because it makes us feel uncomfortable. But we also know that trying to push it away can make it keep bouncing back again at us.
“So having a set time, maybe 20 minutes, where you can sit down and actually write out your worries can be really soothing.”
If writing suits you, the action of putting your book or piece of paper away into a drawer and closing it can help you separate yourself from those worries, he says.
Sutherland says it is best to set these worry times before you have plans to do something you enjoy that will naturally distract your mind. For example, before you visit a friend, go to the gym or make a meal.
Keep doing small things that help you feel in control
Sutherland says it is best to avoid thinking it is inevitable that you will get sick as there are still really effective ways you can reduce your chance of being infected.
“We know that when people engage in really basic health-related behaviours like washing your hands and wearing a mask, this obviously helps reduce the risk of catching Covid-19. But it also helps reduce anxiety by pushing back on the feeling you are helpless and everything is out of your control.”
“You still have control over these really important things. You are not helpless at all.”
Remind yourself of what makes you happy and make time for those things regularly
“This might be a really good time to actually sit down and think about what are the things that are really important to me? What am I doing daily that helps me connect to those interests or values?”
“We can get overwhelmed with all the chaos and the bad stuff that's going on and lose track of the things that make our lives worth living,” he says.
Even if it’s just doing one small thing a day that makes you happy, like calling a friend, buying a cup of coffee, or going for a walk. These little actions can keep us looking forward to parts of our day.
Top image: Woman being late. (File photo) Photo:HbrH Stock Images/iStock.
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