Ten Articles on Coronavirus and Mental Health

One thing that has become clear during the Covid-19 pandemic is the need for mental health resources. Although mental health had already become a topic at the forefront of the legal industry in recent years, new factors like social distancing, career stress, and anxiety about the virus itself have led more lawyers than ever to reflect on mental health and well-being. We’ve rounded up some helpful and informative articles that take a deeper dive into how this pandemic is affecting mental health and what you can do to take care of yourself during these difficult times. We also included a couple of articles that provide some interesting food for thought.

Coping with Anxiety and Other Mental Conditions

1. 7 science-based strategies to cope with coronavirus anxiety. This article provides science-based advice for coping with anxiety about the current times. The list of seven items includes strategies like tolerating uncertainty, transcending existential anxiety, and strengthening self-care.

2. Coronavirus and your mental health: Two experts explain why we panic and how to cope. Yue Qian, a sociologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, is researching “the human experience and mental health consequences of the spread of the coronavirus.” This interview with Qian and her colleague discusses why the coronavirus has impacted mental health and provides tips for coping.

3. Coronavirus Anxiety: Coping with Stress, Fear, and Worry. This article is chock full of digestible tidbits of coping advice, along with a list a hotlines and other resources.

4. How Coronavirus Is Affecting the Mental Health of Millions of Americans. This resource provides information for coping with myriad mental health conditions during the pandemic: anxiety, depression, OCD, substance abuse, eating disorders, ADHD, bipolar, schizophrenia, and PTSD.

On Building Resilience

1. Coronavirus: Building Mental Health Resilience. This article discusses resilience and the idea that “people can even experience emotional growth after a tragedy,” and provides tips for building resilience.

2. How to Build Your Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic. This article lists symptoms of stress in children, adults, and older adults, then provides tips for combatting this stress by building resilience techniques.

Coronavirus and Lawyer Mental Health

1. Lawyers are supposed to plan for the worst, so how can you ease COVID-19 anxiety? This article discusses how lawyers can cultivate optimism during this time in ways like reaching out to others, practicing gratitude, and getting in touch with their inner child.

2. Virus Poses Latest Test to Supporting Attys’ Mental Health. Issues that are especially prevalent in the lawyer community during this time include isolation, the pressure to perform, and the drive for perfection.

Other Think Pieces

1. On Coronavirus Lockdown? Look for Meaning, Not Happiness. Tragic optimism is the “ability to maintain hope and find meaning in life despite its inescapable pain, loss and suffering,” and this article discusses how such an outlook can help us “suffer well.”

2. The coronavirus pandemic is a game changer for mental health care. This article discusses the ways mental health delivery has changed during the pandemic with options like teletherapy and apps and has allowed more people to access mental health care.