During times of stress, no matter your age, sometimes all you need is some sage advise from someone wiser than you. Enter Stephen Fry, wordsmith, comedian and all-round good guy, who has shared his tips on coping with stress and anxiety amid the outbreak of Covid-19.
Known for his witty quips, eloquent opinions, and soothing Twitter feed, Fry is no less considered when it comes to keeping calm during a crisis. Speaking to the BBC, he focused on the positives in this unprecedented and worrying time.
So easy to say #StayAtHome like any major change it takes courage, effort & new ways of thinking. These simple points (from a group of health professionals) might be helpful. I'm sure many will come up with brilliant ideas over the weeks to add to this … pic.twitter.com/OrxOGMtnXb
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) March 17, 2020
"One thing about self isolation and being alone, either as a family or a couple of whatever group you are, or literally solitary, is you have to redefine your sense of time", he said. "Time suddenly alters completely in these situations."
One tip he shared was to "draw up some sort of timetable" to help you manage, be it a physical one on a blackboard, in a diary or on your phone or just in your own head.
While the enormous shift in schedules can lead to some inevitable difficulty, Fry also said that "you can take more time to do everything", a definite salve for our burnout and busy lifestyles.
To minimise stress, he suggested turning off notifications from your smart devices, "so that you're not bombarded by headlines".
"Believe me, if anything important - really important - happens, you'll find out about it."
Instead of consuming a constant stream of updates, he suggests setting a time to check the news instead. "There's so much noise", he added. "Everybody wants to have a point of view, either to show how splendid they are or to show how awful the world is and people want to paint a picture of an apocalypse."
"The fact is, if you listen to the scientific advisors, they almost always begin every sentence with 'We think', 'It's possible', 'Maybe', 'Perhaps', 'We don't know, but...'."
With this in mind, he says, we have to get used to living with a certain about of uncertainty. "What it allows you to do is blank out all those people who claim to know what's going on." "It's a kind of virus in itself", he added.
"If people can just calm down, if they can calm down, by taking a deep breath and allowing time to take on a different dimension", he says, adding that trusted online resources for mental health services can be a big help.
If you have recently travelled from an affected area or want information about coronavirus, go to the HSE's coronavirus page here.
