Lockdown due to the global pandemic has turned people’s world upside down. While we all share this lockdown experience many of us will react to it in very different ways. Some people are relishing this enforced slow down, using it as a chance to decompress and take time out from the very busy lives we have become accustomed to. Others will see it as a chance to reconnect with partners and children and spend quality time together.
For many more, this period has been lonely, isolating and at times overwhelming. This does not only apply to people who live alone. Even those living in households with other people can feel increasingly lonely, anxious and feel they are trapped.
The nature of this pandemic and the way in which we are digitally connected can also exacerbate issues like anxiety and depression. Our tendency to wake up in the morning, pick up our phone and start scrolling does not help matters and can contribute to growing feelings of panic over the situation we find ourselves in.
While we understand there is a need to keep up to date on what is going on, MindWise have been working with other charities in Northern Ireland, as well as statutory partners to address the detrimental impacts this pandemic is having on our mental health and wellbeing.
A newly launched Covid Wellbeing NI website now offers a range of online resources to help people who may be worried about their mental health, or that of a loved one. Covering issues such as addiction, depression, anxiety, loneliness and bereavement amongst others, this resource aims to empower us all to take charge of our mental wellbeing as much as we can.
At MindWise, we have developed some practical advice on encouraging people to filter out the bad news and take time out from what is going on around them. Our very practical tips include turning off news notifications, following only trusted sources of information, talking to other people about your worries and doing more of the things we enjoy like cooking or going for walks. Eating healthily and getting outside can also help.
Only time will tell the true impact that this experience has had on us. What we must do now, is try nurturing our own wellbeing by taking some measures that can protect our mental health against the worst impacts of this pandemic. Filtering out the negativity through the news content we consume daily is one such way of doing so.
A very small step like this can make a big difference but one small step is all it takes.
Anyone looking for advice and support on managing their mental health and wellbeing can visit: https://covidwellbeingni.info/
ANNE DOHERTY
Chief executive, MindWise, Belfast
Is there anything more Sinn Féin can do to rub people up the wrong way?
Sinn Féin seem to be living in their own world protected by a blind confidence that is oblivious to reality.
The public who were lectured and lectured ad nauseam about what could and could not be done, especially around funerals, are understandably dismayed at lack of discipline at the funeral of Bobby Storey.
Making matters worse, Sinn Féin also issued a statement saying that “under no circumstances would Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill be stepping down”. There may well be overtones to this statement.
One could also argue that other elected Sinn Féin members who attended the funeral both from Northern Ireland and the Republic in breach of distancing and number rules should also step down.
Is there anything more Sinn Féin can do to rub people up the wrong way, because they should be all out of ideas to do that by now? There is a brazen arrogance emanating from Sinn Féin which people do not like and never will. The republican movement has been plagued with accusations of double standards throughout their history and is one of the major reasons they have had such a difficult time being accepted. Sinn Féin must accept that there must be accountability in public office. Their recent faux pas has been very damaging and a major mistake politically. The public are not likely to let it slide this time, given the sacrifices made by them in response to the taoiseach’s very insistent demands. Sinn Féin are in deep trouble this time, not alone with the political establishment but the wider public who could not fail to see an organisation who talk the talk, but walk the walk when it suits them.
MAURICE FITZGERALD
Shanally, Co Cork
Truth important in any attempt for peace
I read the article written by Jim Gibney and thought that it worthy of replying.
There is little doubt that Mr Gibney and I would disagree in a debate around the situation in the region, but I must caution against distorting specific incidents to fit political narratives. Truth is important in any attempt for peace.
Mr Gibney, while describing the incident in which Ahmed Erekat died, distorted the facts. Recently released CCTV footage shows clearly that the incident was a ramming attack directed at Israeli police. The car was driven at speed at police, which lead to the attacker being shot, and trying to portray the attack as “minor” is wrong. It is probably easier to believe that a government with “Zionist expansionist plans” could only do wrong but I would question whether Mr Gibney would make these claims if a similar incident had taken place in a European city.
OHAD ZEMET
Israeli Embassy, London
Mr Holmes is clearly living in denial
MR Holmes (July 14) is irate at BBC NI News for calling Ballysillan a loyalist area – after all he has been living there for more than 40 years and is ‘alarmed’ by the characterising, even claiming local politicians use it for political motives.
Mr Holmes is clearly in denial. Ballysillan is a loyalist area, and if he wants to blame anyone for it being called so, he should blame the local loyalists of the UVF/RHC, UDA/UFF, to name a few, and the local community who support them, for bedecking the entire area with loyalist flags and sectarian graffiti and the bonfires covered in sectarian slogans every year.
Maybe he can tell the loyalist terrorists to remove all flags and graffiti so he and others can get an increase in the value of their homes.
On second thoughts, please don’t as it could end badly for him.
A GIBSON
Crumlin, Co Antrim
Statistic
I read that if 900 people were killed each morning in a disaster that it would be about equal to the number of children under five dying per hour, of malnutrition.
JOHN NEILL
Killybegs, Co Donegal
