Experts seeing burnout, stress escalate as pandemic wears on

If you're feeling burned out after a year dealing with COVID-19, you're not alone. Stress has always been part of the human condition, psychiatrist Dr. Francoise Adan said, but the circumstances of the pandemic have just amplified the tension many people are feeling and caused them to feel burned out. Adan is the chief whole health and well-being officer at University Hospitals and director of the UH Connor Integrative Health Network. Addressing that stress must start with awareness, Adan said. It starts with intentionally taking time to pause and ask simple questions of yourself. "How am I when I am at my best? … What is the sign that I'm not doing well?" she offered as a couple of mindful questions that can boost self-awareness. But Adan said most people are better at caring for others than themselves. Many don't realize that they are going about their day with an empty "gas tank" of energy, she said. Some things Adan said may help in "refilling your gas tank": getting a good night's sleep, eating nutritious food, minimizing caffeine and alcohol, connecting with loved ones, seeking purpose, meditating, exercising, listening to uplifting music and saying no to commitments you don't have time for. Still, she understands that resilience is challenged by the extended loss of access to some of the things people use to build resilience in the first place, such as spending time with certain loved ones or practicing certain hobbies. "I think this is a time to have a lot of self-compassion and drop the judgment that, 'I should have done this, I should have done that.' This is not going to help us in any way," Adan said. "It has been a very difficult time, a very challenging time, and many of us have not had access to our usual tools that provide us some way to build up resilience." Some people who need help with emotional or mental health struggles seem to delay seeking assistance during the pandemic, said Elaine Georgas, interim executive director of the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County. "Our goal is the earlier the better. If people can connect, we prefer that," she said. Georgas also encouraged people dealing with pandemic-related stresses to reach out to someone, whether it's to a trusted friend or professional help if needed. "Anyone can reach out to someone else to check in. Those are the valuable tools," she said. The MHARS Board has also worked with partnered community organizations to mobilize "COVID Care Teams" — crisis counselors who can listen to residents struggling with impacts of the pandemic and help them access resources to lift the weight off their shoulders. COVID Care Team counselors can be reached at (440) 240-7025 or (440) 322-6308. Brooke Sherman, director of crisis services at The Nord Center in Lorain, said many people who were coping with pandemic-related stress over the past year have finally reached a breaking point. Calls to The Nord Center actually dropped in 2020, she said — now they have returned to pre-pandemic volume. "When we have prolonged stress, people have different ways of coping," Sherman said. "As the chronic stress continues, some of the adaptive things we did at the beginning of the pandemic — we said, 'We're going to beat this virus' — are gone." The result has been an uptick in substance abuse issues, she said. Trying to deal with the weight of COVID, others have turned to overeating, zoning out and avoiding their normal responsibilities. An initial drop in calls when the pandemic began was also noted by Lorain County Children Services, Executive Director Kristen Fox Berki said. "What we notice from our data is normally a large number of calls we receive from mandated reporters are from teachers," she said. "And when we look at our data, we can see that towards the beginning, from March probably all the way out into the summertime or so, calls from teachers really decreased." That was bound to happen when schools were either shut down or learning remotely, Fox Berki said. As more students have returned to the classroom, she said call volume has slowly returned to a more typical level. One thing that has benefited children in need of the agency's services through the pandemic, Fox Berki said, is that Children Services case workers have been able to be out in the community the whole time addressing families' concerns. Michael Eppley, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Lorain County, reported an increase in calls for help. "I've noticed we're getting a lot more calls from people experiencing stress than we were a year ago," he said. Callers have been asking for help understanding their family and friends' mental illnesses. There's also been a moderate increase in requests for comfort and counseling for suicide survivors, Eppley said: "There have been increases in calls from time to time, but we haven't seen a huge increase at this time in suicides." The pandemic intensifies the effects of the stressors that often lead to suicide, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. That's a huge concern, since COVID-19 infected 76 million people worldwide in 2020. Economic stress — felt by so many as a result of shutdowns and job losses — is associated with higher suicide rates, and social isolation is directly related to an increase in suicidal thoughts, Johns Hopkins doctors Angela Liang and Paul Nestadt said in a guide about the psychiatric implications of the pandemic. Participation in religious communities is associated with lower suicide rates, they said. With many churches and other places of worship closing their doors and curtailing events, that's a cause for concern. A little more than half of suicides are carried out with firearms. Again, Liang and Nestadt rang the alarm, as U.S. firearms sales jumped 41 percent in March 2020 and showed a more than 50 percent increase through the fall. Most callers seeking NAMI guidance are under tremendous stress. They aren't necessarily talking about COVID-19, Eppley said, but its contribution to their worries is undeniable. People are social animals, and social distancing and isolation isn't in our nature, he said. "Everybody's lives, even people without mental illness, have really been pushed to the limits the past year, with not being able to get together with family and friends," he said. Dr. Harry Kestler, a microbiologist at Lorain County Community College who specializes in viruses and vaccines, said it's time to relax a little. "You don't want to go all out and make-believe it's Florida and spring break. That's going to get us all in trouble and cause viral spread," he said. "But I think it's time to let up a little bit and have some human contact." He's been carefully watching national data, specifically eyeing trends in Ohio, Michigan and Florida. Based on the numbers, Kestler said he believes vaccinations are doing an outstanding job of containing the coronavirus. With 2.8 million shots going into American arms every day, the United States is on track to have all willing adults vaccinated by the Fourth of July. And Kestler said the death rate due to COVID-19 has not risen to the terrible spike it hit last year. It's important to keep wearing masks, even after being vaccinated, he said. But it's time to "get out of the cabin" and get some fresh air. Kestler said he's started meeting with fellow researchers in person again, and the result has been incredibly therapeutic. "We need to start coaxing people out of the cave, out of the cabin, because after what we've been through I think that's mentally healthy," he said. Contact Dylan Reynolds at dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Contact Jason Hawk at jason@lcnewspapers.com. Coping with stress during the pandemic • Taking care of your body helps take care of your mind. Try deep breathing, stretching and meditation. Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep. • Avoid excessive alcohol, tobacco and substance use. • Getting vaccinated can help relieve stress related to COVID-19. • Set aside time to unwind with activities you enjoy. Especially for those people who are working at home, make sure to have time to relax. • Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling. • Connect with community or faith-based organizations. Social distancing is good, but you can seek out ways to stay in touch with people online, by phone, via mail or outside. • If you feel hopeless, depressed or a desire to harm yourself, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (888) 628-9454. Alternatives include the COVID-19 CareLine at (800) 720-9616, the 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Hotline at (800) 888-6161, or 911. You can also text "4HOPE" to 741741. SOURCE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention