Stress and Anxiety During the Pandemic

Covid-19 and the global pandemic continues to create uncertainty within the world. This has led to high levels of anxiety and stress across the world as we continue to try and make sense of the “new normal” that we find ourselves within.

Life as an educator has also been extremely altered with the unprecedented closure of schools with yourself and education colleagues across the United Kingdom working from home whilst striving to support children, young people and often families during this crisis.

Feelings of anxiety during this time have been experienced by a high number of educators and is a perfectly normal response to the ever-changing dynamic that we are faced within particularly when our worries about our personal lives, family members and general health are also never far from our minds.

There is an NHS Resource, listed below, aiming to support people who are faced within stressful situations and want to try and manage their wellbeing. This resource explores your current feelings, provide ideas on how to cope and build your wellbeing, how to create a personal wellbeing plan and further advice and information.

Wellbeing and Coping - https://wellbeingandcoping.net

In the midst of the pandemic, it has been reported that excessive access to mainstream news or social media has had a detrimental impact on our wellbeing, with increased feelings of anxiety and stress. Although it is important that we are aware of the current guidelines to support ourselves, family members and those within our education settings, a simple strategy for managing social media more safely, would be to mute key words such as “virus”, “covid” and other triggers that you find are personal to you.

With the pandemic continuing and local lockdowns being enforced this period of time feels endless which is contributing to the levels of stress and anxiety faced by us all. Within education services, the support and hard-work continues on resulting in the pressure continuing. During times of hardship, it is really important to cultivate hope, kindness and interaction with others. It is really important that you reach out to people if you are feeling stressed or anxious.  If these feelings become too overwhelming, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your GP or local health services.