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SELF-HELP

These resources are not meant to replace professional treatment, but rather to support your mental health care. Explore the information and tips, drawing from them what works for you.

 

MANAGING COVID-19 FEARS

It’s natural to feel anxious at this time – the worry pushes us to take action to protect ourselves, which is a good thing. But when this worry gets too much or can’t be switched off at all, we need to help our mind and body come back to the present, realising the scary story we’re telling ourselves is not real in this moment.

A sense of looming threat, uncertainty and lack of control fuel anxiety, igniting panic in some of us. Below are a few resources for you to use in managing the fear. Approach your fear not as something awful to get away from, but as a scared child to comfort & soothe.

If you’re battling with intense fear, constant anxiety, disturbed sleep, are having trouble getting through your day, or are finding self-isolation/quarantine really tough, you can book an online session. Click here for more details

 

A basic action plan

Write out a plan that includes the steps you have the power to take: WHO | CDC

When you hear/think something scary, remind yourself…

Help your immune system by using these relaxation techniques daily

Try out these 7 science-based coping strategies

Explore mindfulness to live in the now, instead of future ‘what ifs’

A mindfulness meditation to bring you into the present

Learn how to talk to your anxious child / teen

Guidance from the Child Mind Institute on talking to your child

Ways to cope with social distancing

Guidance on social distancing, quarantine, isolation

How to care for one another at this time

Take an online SA meditation class for R60/R80

Tour America’s Yosemite National Park

Find more SA-specific info & helpline details here

 

TAKE A SCREENING TEST

(please note that this is not a diagnosis)

Overall Mental Health

Bipolar

Depression

Anxiety

Trauma

Psychosis

 

SLEEP PROBLEMS

More info on sleep

Sleep HelpGuide

Tips for better sleep

Sleep audio guide

Alpha brainwave music to fall asleep

Guided sleep meditation 1

Guided sleep meditation 2

Guided sleep meditation 3

Guided sleep meditation 4

 

ANXIETY

When social situations cause fear

Returning to calm with the power breath

 

GRIEF

Facing loss

 

SEXUAL HEALTH

Post-sex blues

 

RESILIENCE

Dealing with hardships

 

COPING SKILLS

Relaxation techniques

Calming down worry

How to cope with difficult feelings

Free breathing app to help manage intense emotions iOS

Free breathing app to help manage intense emotions Android

Audio guide on unhelpful thinking styles

 

RELATIONSHIPS

Noticing unhelpful communication styles

Learning relationship-friendly ways of communicating

 

VIDEOS

Mental health episodes

Big Thinkers on mental health

 

PODCASTS

Living with human suffering

Finding a way through the grief of losing a loved one to COVID-19

 

CINEMATHERAPY

(films on mental health / existence / meaning / the human spirit)

Lion

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Life as a House

Wild

The Soloist

Patch Adams

The Zookeeper’s Wife

The Pursuit of Happyness

We Bought a Zoo

The Blind Side

Good Will Hunting

Into the Wild

The Fault in our Stars

Seven Pounds

Mona Lisa Smile

The Help

Gifted

The Green Mile

Wonder

The Theory of Everything

Goodbye Christopher Robin

To the Bone

The Fundamentals of Caring

Under the Tuscan Sun

Dead Poets Society

The Glass Castle

Saving Mr Banks

The Greatest Showman