Mental Health Resources

Since the beginning of the pandemic, distance learning and virtual school stress has become a new type of danger to our children. They might start feeling hopeless, scared, anxious, moody, irritable, and depressed. As a parent, what steps can you make to help them cope with this change?

Many times teens experience anxiety in ways that we may pass off as “being a teen.” Teens may experience debilitating anxiety and not know that those physiological symptoms are in fact anxiety; so they may not alert you to their symptoms. Anxiety is treatable. We can help.

As humans, we tend to compare ourselves to others, especially on social media platforms. But when do comparisons become unhealthy and how do you break away from it?

Please join Janice March, Parent Educator at The Family Guidance and Therapy Center, Petaluma for a free virtual support group for parents of Neurodiverse (ASD, SPD, and ADHD) Children in Sonoma County.

There is nobody in the world that knows you better than yourself, and this is the foundation for how you can and should love yourself when you are in the middle of a big life change and feeling as if the world is judging you.

The pandemic has led to loneliness and sadness through sickness, loss of life, economic hardship, and social distancing, but it has also produced a positive outcome in its wake, a powerful strengthening experience and opportunity in both our own selves and collectively in our communities. 

Practice self-compassion by acknowledging your guilt and giving it a name. Or call it what the world has tagged it—survivor’s guilt (i.e., pandemic guilt, coronavirus guilt, thriver guilt). This will help you to take the pressure off yourself.

To step into any new beginning, we must dump off any ‘heavyweights’ that can prevent us from moving forward. So, prepare to release what you cannot personally change. 

How is COVID impacting your 2020 Holidays and how are you managing to juggle the impact the virus has had on the season for you and your family?

Use preventive measures to ward off the virus, and then file your worries away. The more you worry, the more it can eat away at your mental health and your immune system. Remember, you are okay right now.