Maybe you've achieved the freedom to retire or perhaps you're on your way and working from home. In either case, life has changed and will be different for some time. Under these circumstances, what are the best coping strategies for anxiety in uncertain times? And can spending time in nature help us? Can we do our own ecotherapy?

In this special podcast episode, two cooped up guys in New Jersey talk with two guests to get their advice.

Stay tuned for the final segment where we share our personal observations on the lockdown and moving forward.

 

Coping Strategies
 

First up is Nick Wignall. He is a licensed psychologist at The Cognitive Behavioral Institute of Albuquerque where he does psychotherapy with adults of all ages. Board-certified in behavioral and cognitive psychology, he specializes in empirically-supported treatments for anxiety and insomnia, including interoceptive exposure therapy for panic attacks, exposure and response prevention (ERP) for phobias and OCD, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) for sleep difficulties.

Nick is the author of a recent book on therapy and mental health: Find Your Therapy: A Practical Guide to Finding Quality Therapy. It’s a nuts and bolts style guide to learning about the most important factors in choosing a therapist and how to go about finding a good one, either for yourself or someone you love.

Nick did his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, including research in human genetics and psychopharmacology. Prior to that, Nick earned his Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor's in English Literature from the University of Dallas.

Nick lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, his three young daughters, and German Shepherd, Charlie.

We ask Nick for his thoughts on:

How people can maintain their mental health in the pandemic
Coping strategies for anxiety in these times
How to best cope with isolation
How to get sleep patterns back on track
His advice if people need to seek professional help

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Wise Quotes
 

On Habits & Mental Health

"I really think habits are kind of the soul, the heart and soul of mental health."

 

Habits vs Coping Skills 

"And what I mean by that is coping skills are a bit like your emergency break in your car. They're nice to have, but you really don't want to rely on them. Instead, I think you want to work to cultivate habits that strengthen your mental health and keep you resilient even when things get tough. So, I think this is especially important - when it comes to something like our current situation with COVID- 19 and the lockdowns. Because a lot of us have lost a lot of our normal habits and routines, that whether we knew it or not, we're actually kind of buffering and strengthening our mental health."

 

On Building New Habits

"I think probably the most important thing people can do is to first start to think about what are the habits that support and strengthen my mental health. And then given the unique kind of challenges and constraints of our current situation, how can I get kind of creative about building new or sort of modified habits and routines that will support my mental health."

 

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For More on Nick Wignall:
Nick's Website

Nick's book

Nick's Email: nwignall@gmail.com

 

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