Note about Author: Dr. Brian Mainland is the clinic director and one of the psychologists at Waterloo Psychology Group. Tips and Links from a Psychologist. Uptown Waterloo has certainly felt strange over the past 9 weeks or so. The coronavirus pandemic has required all of us to drastically change our habits and schedules and as the weeks drag on the impact of social isolation, combined with anxiety around finances, maintaining relationships, parenting, and countless other concerns, continues to add to our mental stress as we cope as a community.
The web has an endless supply of COVID statistics, prevention recommendations and other information, so we thought we would focus this blog on sharing some helpful links we have found for socializing, challenging our brain, and staying physically and mentally active. While lazy holidays are great for short-term relaxation, as time goes on, we can become accustomed to the greatly slowed pace of things and our motivation to engage in positive physical and mental activities can begin to diminish.
In fact, studies have found that social isolation can be associated with declines in mental health, including increased risk of depression, cognitive decline, anxiety and substance abuse. The social distancing strategy being adopted to fight COVID is reportedly showing signs of effectiveness in slowing transmission, which is a huge positive. However, the isolation that comes with social distancing means that we need to get creative in developing ways to stimulate our brains, muscles, joints, and the rest of our bodies so that we come out of this period as physically and mentally healthy as we can.
Waterloo Psychology Group does not have any connection with or endorse any of the links below but we do enjoy them! Websites and Ideas for Adult and Adolescents.
The University of Waterloo has some great free media to stimulate or relax the mind:. Mental Health Apps. The Wirecutter, which is owned by the New York Times, has some excellent guides:. Virtual Game Night. Stay Social. Local Ideas Exchange where you can communicate with locals. Online retailers have the same paint-by-numbers you loved as a kid, just with a higher degree of difficulty to challenge even seasoned artists.
