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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,

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Speaker 1: the Very Unprofessional podcast, whereby I talk through some of

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Speaker 1: the big changes and transition of our twenties and what

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Speaker 1: they mean for our psychology. Hi, how are we all?

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Speaker 1: Are we managing? Struggling, coping? Let's start with a little

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Speaker 1: check in moment because times are kind of depressing right

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Speaker 1: now and very isolating being in lockdown, as I'm fairly

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Speaker 1: sure most of us are at the moment. So how

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Speaker 1: are you feeling? Really? How are you feeling? What's your

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Speaker 1: body telling you you need right now? Maybe it's a nap,

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Speaker 1: some social connection, a case it bears, maybe something creative.

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Speaker 1: Some water. Actually, that's something I realized being in lockdown.

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Speaker 1: I do not drink like any water, none, Because now

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Speaker 1: I'm not at the office and using the kitchen, there's

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Speaker 1: like an excuse to get up every ten minutes. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: in all seriousness, pause this episode for a bit. I

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Speaker 1: promise it's not that good. Just do a little check

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Speaker 1: in with your body. Go get some water, Go drink

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Speaker 1: some water, give your body what she wants. Are we

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Speaker 1: all back now, hydrated, happier? Good? Let's get into it.

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Speaker 1: I really didn't know what to record this week. I

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Speaker 1: had a bunch of episodes planned around internalized misogyny, friendship breakups,

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Speaker 1: which I put on my Instagram story, dating apps, blah

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. You know, it all just seemed

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Speaker 1: a little bit trivial. And there are also episodes I

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Speaker 1: want to give a bit more thought and research into,

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Speaker 1: and I kind of hit the lockdown depression wall pretty

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Speaker 1: hard these past three days. Let's be honest, I'm not

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Speaker 1: really up for researching like a thirty minute episode on

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Speaker 1: like friendship breakups right now. I feel like that would

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Speaker 1: just be a little bit too much. So sorry to disappoint,

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Speaker 1: but I'm sure a few of you are in the

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Speaker 1: same boat. For Camber. It's been about three weeks since

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Speaker 1: I last got to hug my beautiful friends and exist

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Speaker 1: beyond this pattern of work and Uni walks around the

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Speaker 1: neighborhood half a bottle of wine at the end of

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Speaker 1: the night, and I just miss humans being messy and

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Speaker 1: attractive and weird and funny. And Zoom just does not

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Speaker 1: do people justice, especially the beautiful people in my life.

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Speaker 1: You know, their souls are just they're too big for Zoom.

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Speaker 1: They're too big. So I thought for this week we

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Speaker 1: could actually address, you know, a very current moment in

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Speaker 1: time topic. Let's talk about lockdown and the psychology behind wide.

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Speaker 1: Lockdowns have such a profound influences on our mental health.

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Speaker 1: As much as it sucks, I do feel very lucky

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Speaker 1: compared to those who live alone at least to have

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Speaker 1: people around me, which is really lovely. But my housemates

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Speaker 1: do not give me nearly enough hugs because their love

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Speaker 1: language is not physical affection, but mine is so oscar Arianna,

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Speaker 1: if you're listening, please don't let me willtop and die

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Speaker 1: alone in my room watching mine tunters. Please give me

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Speaker 1: a hug. I need it at this point. But this

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Speaker 1: is a shorter episode because I really just wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk about some mental health tips for lockdown, going a

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Speaker 1: little bit deeper than self care and just have a

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Speaker 1: little chat while we examine how to reconnect with yourself

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Speaker 1: in a time that feels really disconnected most suggest really

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Speaker 1: fucking tired. So maybe the length of this episode can

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Speaker 1: serve as a lesson that it's important to give ourselves,

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Speaker 1: you know, a little bit of space and be extra

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Speaker 1: patient around what we're capable of doing during these times.

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Speaker 1: So I read this excellent article recently on the impact

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Speaker 1: of lockdown on our mental health, and I think it

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Speaker 1: really sums up the thought and emotional patterns I'm sure

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Speaker 1: heaps of us are going through. So essentially, COVID lockdowns

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Speaker 1: are the world's biggest and most profound psychological experiment like

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Speaker 1: ever so since COVID emerged, five point five billion people

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Speaker 1: have entered some form of lockdown, and we already have

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Speaker 1: all these studies and papers being released about the impacts

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Speaker 1: on people mentally and emotionally. And in short, and perhaps unsurprisingly,

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Speaker 1: people who are quarantined, you're very likely to develop a

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Speaker 1: wide range of symptoms of just psychological stress, low mood, insomnia, stress, irritability,

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Speaker 1: emotionally exhaustion, depression as well, and even post traumatic stress symptoms. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but low mood and irritability specifically, they stand out as

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Speaker 1: being super common. Was one study that I was reading said,

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Speaker 1: and I think reasons for stress are just so abound

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Speaker 1: in lockdown. There's risk of infection, the fear of becoming

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Speaker 1: sick or of losing loved ones, financial hardship, being isolated

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Speaker 1: from people, and all of these many more as well.

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Speaker 1: They're present in this current pandemic and I think what

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Speaker 1: will be really interesting to see is the long term

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Speaker 1: effects of this psychologically, especially perhaps even some form of

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Speaker 1: generational trauma could kind of come out of this, because

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Speaker 1: it is something that very few generations have experienced to

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Speaker 1: this magnitude. And I'm not at all saying that this

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Speaker 1: is any sort of argument against lockdowns, because I'm not

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Speaker 1: an idiot, but I do think that that context is

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Speaker 1: important to be able to understand what we can do

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Speaker 1: individually at the moment to keep ourselves same. So, trauma

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Speaker 1: psychologists have broken down a typical pattern of response or

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Speaker 1: individual phases in response to a zaster or something unexpected

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Speaker 1: like a lockdown, and these stages, most people move through

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Speaker 1: them when confronted with something that kind of alters the norm.

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Speaker 1: So here's the thing, even if it's your second, third,

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Speaker 1: seventh lockdown, these phases are still pretty much the same,

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Speaker 1: even with fatigue and formative learning due to the experience

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Speaker 1: of previous lockdowns. So this model that research is proposed,

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Speaker 1: so when we first lockdown, when it first begins, we

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Speaker 1: have this initial adaptational response. We might feel hyper focused

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Speaker 1: and prepared. However, as time kind of progresses, the impact

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Speaker 1: is finally really delivered which is often accompanied by that

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Speaker 1: peak in stress, angst, panic. I'm sure we've all been there,

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Speaker 1: and this is when we are really confronted with essentially

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Speaker 1: the reality of the situation. But luckily, as the days

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Speaker 1: go by, we soon enter this like honeymoon phase, as

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Speaker 1: what the researchers called it, where we feel almost more

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Speaker 1: comfortable in this situation. We feel we can anticipate what's

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Speaker 1: coming next. We feel more settled, perhaps we even feel happier.

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Speaker 1: We're thinking about all the things that we wanted to

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Speaker 1: do that we can now do in lockdown. Maybe you're

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Speaker 1: doing heaps of baking, heaps of drinking, whatever it is.

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Speaker 1: You feel almost like it's a bit of a blessing.

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Speaker 1: But we do drop off back from there, and at

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Speaker 1: one point we'll just hit like an equal librium where

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Speaker 1: it feels that nothing's changed. We kind of do get

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Speaker 1: that sense of comfort. But as our anxiety declines and

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Speaker 1: that adaptational response drops off, we do experience a growing

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Speaker 1: disillusionment or numbness. So this increases with time, and although

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Speaker 1: we may seem may seem engaged community and an individual

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Speaker 1: adaptation to the circumstances, as time does pass, as we

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Speaker 1: go through more weeks of being by ourselves or being

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Speaker 1: in quarantine, things shift and people undergo a psychological transformation

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Speaker 1: away from shock and action to a stillness also an

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Speaker 1: emptiness as well. This is for what you know, for many,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure what lockdown kind of feels like, this roller

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Speaker 1: coaster of stress to elation to stillness, numbness, stagnation, especially

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Speaker 1: as the novelty wears off and reality kind of sinks in.

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Speaker 1: So there's this idea that a lockdown or quarantine consists

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Speaker 1: of six stages for someone internally. So stage one, we've

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Speaker 1: got that initial action in planning where it's just been

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Speaker 1: announced and you're thinking about all the groceries you need

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Speaker 1: to buy, You're thinking about all the things that you

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Speaker 1: need to organize, and it's kind of like the survival mobewhere,

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Speaker 1: like we have to get everything ready for this big change.

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Speaker 1: And then we hit stage two and it's kind of

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Speaker 1: keep calm, carry on, let's just get through this a

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Speaker 1: lot of unknowns, and then stage three. So stage three

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Speaker 1: is kind of like that honeymoon phase that these trauma

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Speaker 1: psychologists thought of. So it's a sense of elation often

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Speaker 1: associated with like a productivity frenzy, you know, you're just

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Speaker 1: throwing yourself into new projects, throwing yourself to union work,

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Speaker 1: exercising heaps. And then we hit stage four, which is

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Speaker 1: that paralysis and anxiety I was talking about. And then

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Speaker 1: stage five, so slowing down, kind of getting into the

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Speaker 1: groove of it. You know, you've had time to adjust

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Speaker 1: to this, you feel that you're kind of are capable

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Speaker 1: of understanding what's going And then we have stage six,

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Speaker 1: which I'm sure a lot of us are in now,

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Speaker 1: which is just numbness and the new kind of normal,

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Speaker 1: like some people call it like a lump mode, just

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Speaker 1: like boredom, stagnation kind of not having anything going on.

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Speaker 1: And burnout is also a really big part of this

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Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, I can definitely relate to this

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Speaker 1: right now. I think I kind of switch between stage

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Speaker 1: six and stage four. Especially stage six at the moment.

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Speaker 1: I have felt so burnt out recently. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: how many other people have felt this way, but I

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Speaker 1: just cannot motivate myself at all. I just feel really

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Speaker 1: tired and just move periodically from my desk to my bed,

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Speaker 1: to my phone to my kitchen, you know, for another

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Speaker 1: cup of green tea that I'm kind of hoping or

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Speaker 1: simultaneously calming down and motivate me. So I'm just a

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Speaker 1: bit confused by the point of existing at the moment,

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Speaker 1: but it was really useful to kind of read that

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Speaker 1: this is a normal pattern that we tend to go

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Speaker 1: through when we're confronted with something like a lockdown or

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Speaker 1: like a disaster and a burnout. I burnout is as

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Speaker 1: a big thing to watch out for in this time,

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Speaker 1: especially after that period of heightened anxiety and adapting to

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Speaker 1: a new normal, moving away from getting stimulation, from going

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Speaker 1: out to bars and seeing people and having activities to do.

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Speaker 1: It's a hard adjustment and it does place a lot

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Speaker 1: of pressure on our coping mechanisms and an our nervous

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Speaker 1: system as well. So burnout it's, like I said, really

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Speaker 1: something to look out for in this time and make

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Speaker 1: sure you're checking in with yourself. It often looks like

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Speaker 1: mental exhaustion, really irritable, reduce concentration, detachment, and decreased satisfaction

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Speaker 1: with your accomplishments. It can also make it harder to

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Speaker 1: get things done, which I've been seeing a lot within

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Speaker 1: myself at the moment and a big contributing factor to

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Speaker 1: burn out. I've been feeling at least, is this lack

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Speaker 1: of distinction between my personal and my home life, my

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Speaker 1: leisure relaxing space, and then work and UNI as well.

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Speaker 1: There is just no separation between work and the times

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Speaker 1: when I'm just relaxing or doing my hobbies or other things.

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Speaker 1: You only have the space your home allows you to

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Speaker 1: kind of create, and that necessary separation of your work life,

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Speaker 1: especially working from home, and your socializing life or your

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Speaker 1: relaxed safety relaxation time. It's really hard in your twenties,

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Speaker 1: especially when we live in small sharehouses or apartments with roommates.

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Speaker 1: It's just really fucking hard. So I'll find myself using

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Speaker 1: my room for everything, which makes it really hard to

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Speaker 1: switch off firstly, but also really hard to switch on

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Speaker 1: when I have to do tasks or accomplish things that

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Speaker 1: are work related. Like I said, productivity has definitely taken

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Speaker 1: a huge nose dive. But a really interesting research paper

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Speaker 1: I read on this, however, offered some really good suggestions

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Speaker 1: for creating distinctions between different activities in your mind whilst

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Speaker 1: you are unable to create physically distinct places or go

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Speaker 1: anywhere so like the office or the library. Essentially, what

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Speaker 1: the research is in this paper I read suggested you

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Speaker 1: do is create like different stations around your house or

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Speaker 1: your living space that are uniquely associated with one task

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Speaker 1: or activity that you do on a daily basis. So,

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Speaker 1: for example, your desk is for UNI work and uniwork

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Speaker 1: on the dining table is for paid work. I guess

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Speaker 1: your bed is for rest and the couches for TV.

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Speaker 1: And you cannot do any other task in the station

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Speaker 1: that you've associated with one other, or the universe just explodes.

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Speaker 1: That's the lesson. You have to keep them distinct. And

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Speaker 1: this is a really good method separating your space. It's

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Speaker 1: really good for increasing productivity and giving some form of

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Speaker 1: routine and nuance to the hours in your day. And

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Speaker 1: I did try this. It did really help for a while,

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Speaker 1: but then it got really rainy and cold outside, and

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you just want to watch your lectures

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Speaker 1: in bed. But if you have the space and the discipline,

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Speaker 1: I would definitely recommend. There is evidence behind this really

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Speaker 1: helping creating those little stations. And I'm sure we've all

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Speaker 1: heard this before, but creating structure around your days daily rituals,

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Speaker 1: a specific wake up time that one's really crucial, a

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Speaker 1: time when you exercise, when you eat your meals and

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Speaker 1: go to bed. It's really helpful for establishing normalcy and

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Speaker 1: getting your mind off of what else is going on.

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Speaker 1: And I know it's a lot harder than we make

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Speaker 1: it out to be because there is nothing else kind

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Speaker 1: of enforcing a structure upon you. But I think eventually

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Speaker 1: a lockdown ends and you've got to be able to

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Speaker 1: move back into everyday life. So trying to keep up

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Speaker 1: as many of those habits as you can is really

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Speaker 1: helpful in the long term. The other thing I really

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Speaker 1: stand by is planning pleasurable activities. So this is a

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Speaker 1: behavioral strategy that's often used for managing depression. So it's

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Speaker 1: called pleasant activity scheduling, and it really helps boost your mood,

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Speaker 1: especially at times when it's really difficult to find things

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Speaker 1: to plan for. You know, there's not much to look

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Speaker 1: forward to because things are just so uncertain. Essentially, as

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you can guess, it involved periodically planning things

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Speaker 1: that you enjoy at different intervals, so you know, on Monday,

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Speaker 1: as do my friends on Tuesday, or to uber eats

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Speaker 1: on Wednesday, I paint something or something along those lines.

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Speaker 1: And it's a form of behavioral activation that allows you

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Speaker 1: to feel more in control of your mood by giving

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Speaker 1: you a pick me up at scheduled times to keep

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Speaker 1: your happiness high, which we do love would love to

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Speaker 1: see that. I think. Another really hard part of lockdowns

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Speaker 1: and quarantine in general is that there is very little

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Speaker 1: that can replace human connection. I will be honest, I

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Speaker 1: have spent a large amount of time looking at the

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Speaker 1: RSPCA website thinking this would be a great time to

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Speaker 1: adopt a cat. That is a delusional thought. I do

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Speaker 1: not need to adopt a cat, but it does show

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Speaker 1: that we do need some form of simulation or connection

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Speaker 1: to other living creatures. When we're deprived of human interactions,

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Speaker 1: our brain literally loses white matter. In lab animals, for example,

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Speaker 1: I remember this is a really common study that you

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Speaker 1: learn about in many psychology courses. Basically, experiment is they

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Speaker 1: isolate lab rants or lab animals, and that isolation is

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Speaker 1: shown to cause brain shrinkage and it can lead to

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Speaker 1: an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and these animals, so

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Speaker 1: it's imperative that we keep up those social ties, keep

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Speaker 1: reaching out, keep trying to do things. And if you

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Speaker 1: are feeling deprived of touch or connection, this is kind

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Speaker 1: of sad, But a really good strategy I've found is

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Speaker 1: to clasp your hands together and close your eyes. It

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Speaker 1: is a proven psychological method for imitating human touch. And

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes a girl has to do it. You know,

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Speaker 1: I want to hold someone's hand, it may as well

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Speaker 1: be my own. And we do hear those basic strategies

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Speaker 1: of you know, calling a friend, reaching out, but sometimes

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Speaker 1: it is human touch that we really do need. And

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Speaker 1: a warm shower is also really useful. Dancing as well.

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Speaker 1: It allows us to feel more connect did with our

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Speaker 1: bodies in a way that we so often look to

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Speaker 1: human touch or sex for so dancing feeling like the

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Speaker 1: movement in your body, feeling connected to your limbs, it's

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Speaker 1: a really great way to feel attached to the physical

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Speaker 1: present and your physical form. Finally, if you're feeling super

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Speaker 1: stressed or panicky, as it's still understandable at this time,

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Speaker 1: there are some really helpful things that you can do

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Speaker 1: when you're alone and you can't really reach out to others. Firstly,

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Speaker 1: I heard this tip ages ago, but eat a meal

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Speaker 1: or eat something so Eating helps calm the nervous system

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Speaker 1: because it activates our digestive system, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the first systems. Our brain shuts down in moments of panic.

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Speaker 1: So essentially, by eating and putting something in your stomach,

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Speaker 1: you're communicating with your nervous system this message that you know,

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Speaker 1: if we were stressed, we wouldn't be eating, and if

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Speaker 1: we're in danger, you know, we wouldn't be snacking on

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Speaker 1: almonds because we would be fleeing. So it tricks the

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Speaker 1: brain into calming down by kind of it using this

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Speaker 1: form of buy feedback. Whether you're able to control these

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Speaker 1: biological flight flight or fight mechanisms by telling your body

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Speaker 1: that's really nothing to worry about. And just some more

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Speaker 1: basic examples. I'm sure you can look these up on

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Speaker 1: the internet, but if you're listening, maybe this is helpful.

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Speaker 1: So breathing exercises, vigorous exercise, or finally putting something really

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Speaker 1: cold on your wrists or going outside in the cold.

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Speaker 1: This helps cool you down, but it also diverts blood

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Speaker 1: back into your brain and back into your heart and

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Speaker 1: centralizes you a bit more. Okay, Like I said, this

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Speaker 1: episode is all over the place. This was just kind

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Speaker 1: of a roller coaster of strategies. But I think we

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Speaker 1: way too often find ourselves talking about self care, which

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Speaker 1: is great you know, sure self care is kind of

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Speaker 1: lauded as this huge mental health antidote, but it's really

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Speaker 1: not a full solution. You know, doing a face mask

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Speaker 1: is great, it's nice, but it's not really going to

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Speaker 1: quell the psychological trauma of going through a pandemic. You know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know any company that makes a good enough

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Speaker 1: face mask for that. But bigger habits and strategies they

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Speaker 1: do need to be established. So hopefully this is somewhat useful.

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Speaker 1: This is just kind of what I've been learning, what

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Speaker 1: I've been seeing in myself. I also just feel like

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Speaker 1: this was kind of like a rundown that I needed

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Speaker 1: to be like, yes, a reminder we can get through this.

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Speaker 1: You know, our brain is something that we're not at

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Speaker 1: the whims of. Like we can control how our body

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Speaker 1: reacts to stressful situations, and this is a really shitty time.

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Speaker 1: I've been watching a lot of mind Hunters, which hasn't

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Speaker 1: really helped, but is a really good show if you

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Speaker 1: want to add something onto the watch list on Netflix.

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Speaker 1: What else have I been doing? Spending a lot of

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Speaker 1: money at the IgA, just buying like done stuff like chocolate,

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Speaker 1: moose and sushi. I'm not really sure, how essentil those are,

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Speaker 1: but there's really only so many times you can eat

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Speaker 1: the same Hello Fresh meals. I think before you get

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Speaker 1: kind of tired of like chicken and potatoes and del Mao.

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Speaker 1: And if you have Hello Fresh, you know what I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about, the fucking del Mao. You know you know

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Speaker 1: when I'm talking about. But we will get through this,

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Speaker 1: I say, very unconvincingly. We can get through this. And

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Speaker 1: in all honesty, I'm wishing you all God's speed. This

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Speaker 1: podcast has been such a lifeline for me, so thanks

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Speaker 1: for all the support and love, and I'm giving it

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Speaker 1: right back. And look, you can hear it raining because

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Speaker 1: I'm recording this in my car. How nice got that

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Speaker 1: the rain's coming out? Micro have a nap. It's very calming.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, stay COVID safe, take care of yourselves. I

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Speaker 1: promise next week I will have a more interesting episode

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Speaker 1: rather than just me rambling about self care and coping

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Speaker 1: strategies that I'm sure we all know. But if you

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Speaker 1: found it useful, yeah, that's the only thing. And I

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Speaker 1: found it useful for myself. So take care of yourself,

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Speaker 1: stay COVID safe, connect with friends. There's so much love

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Speaker 1: out there. And I'll be back now Squeak with an

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Speaker 1: episode that is I promise you a bit more exciting