News from Idaho SILC

Promoting independent living for all Idahoans

Life with COVID-19

Happy November! We are now entering the 8th, or is it 9th month of Covid. When things started happening last March, the thought of still being in the middle of a crisis this many months later was unimaginable to me…after all, November was months and months away!!! Well, here we are in November and Covid continues.
   At the beginning of April I sat down to figure out what I could do to take care of my mental health. I felt pretty positive that I had all the skills I needed to make it through the stay-at-home orders, tele-working, staying away from friends and family and only going out when absolutely necessary. I did great for about 5 weeks! Sadly, I realized I can only make so many vision boards, take so many bubble baths in a day, and meditate only so often before I must come up with something else to do. My mother did tell me I was probably the cleanest depressed person she had ever known, in case that helped me feel better. YAY!!!
  As the days wore on, I started sinking lower and lower into a depression and I thought i was alone, at lease until I started to talk about how I was feeling to others. Imagine my surprise when I started hearing back from people who were feeling the exact same way. We are social creatures, for the most part, and COVID was not helping us.
   Taking care of our mental health is an important step to our physical and emotional wellbeing, and something that we often overlook. We shove our feelings and thoughts aside and keep pushing ourselves as hard as we can, hoping our mental health will simply improve or we can just “get health will simply improve or we can just “get through it.” That is rarely the case. If we break our leg, we go to the doctor. If we get strep throat, we go to the doctor. Why is it so hard for us to understand that it is okay to go to the doctor for our mental health? There is no shame in asking for help when we need it, regardless of the issues.

If you need to talk with someone, please, please reach out! You do not need to be suicidal to contact the Idaho Suicide Hotline or go to any of the Crises Centers in Idaho. All of these are free services and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline – 208-398-HELP (4357) Call or Text

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255

Spanish National Suicide Prevention Hotline – 888-628-9454

Crisis Text Line – Text 74741

Deaf Crisis Line  – 1-321-800-3323 (VP)