By Ohana Behavioral Health Team
Feeling super tired during quarantine? Having trouble making it through the day? More fatigued as the days pass?
Typically, your days consist of at least having some sort of social interaction with the outside world, which could include your work colleagues, your friends, or even the people you see at the grocery store. Now, your day might consist mostly of browsing through Netflix to see what is new and debating whether it is really worth it to go out to the store. Suddenly, your days have been reduced to a bare minimum.
Other than having Zoom fatigue, according to research, the reason behind this constant feeling of the lack of energy can be attributed to allostatic load. Allostatic load is a complex term for when the body is exposed to repeated amounts of stress for a long period of time, although we might not feel as though we are stressed that does not stop our brains from trying to process the stress around us.
Even though you may feel like you are not doing anything that would cause you to feel stress, it does not mean your brain has reached the same level of fatigue that you have been feeling. In fact, during the time when one might experience a high allostatic load, it is common for the brain to be working overtime, and going into a fight or flight mode to make up for the major change of pace in your everyday life.
You might ask, how do you get rid of this feeling of overwhelming tiredness? The best place to start is simple: Self- Care. But, what does that mean? First of all, self-care is always a good practice, now, it is essential. Fact, self-care is not selfish. Self-care means intentionally doing activities that we enjoy for our physical, mental, and emotional health. Self-care does not have to be elaborate. Self-care can simply mean eating regularly with a well-balanced meal, exercise, arts and crafts, take a nap or try to get a good night sleep.
Physical activity, if you can manage to at least do some form of physical activity during the day it will reduce the inflammation in your body which is a common factor that leads to fatigue. The point is to get your body moving and to engage your body. Keep in mind no one has all the answers during this time, all you can do is try our best.
Hope and the life you want is a call away. If you need additional support, we are here to help.
To learn more about Allostatic Load-
