Tracey Wingold: Maintaining Mental Health

By Charles McGuigan 04.2020

Tracey Wingold, a licensed clinical social worker, offers some tips for maintaining mental health during this unprecedented pandemic. Tracey, who has worked as a counselor for well over a decade, had a sort of head start on the COVID-19 crisis.

“I have been doing online counseling for the last three years through a telehealth platform,” she says. “And telehealth is the thing right now. But I’ve been doing it for almost three years, counseling in this way.”

Tracey’s specialty area has traditionally been with mothers, which dovetailed nicely with teletherapy.

“If I have a niche, it’s working with mothers which is how I got into the telehealth because I work with a lot of postpartum,” Trace says. “I also just do general mental health with depression, anxiety and trauma, and people really like the venue to be able to do it from the home or office. It takes it to another level of comfort that for some people it’s really conducive for doing good work, doing good hard, emotional work.”

In these surreal times, it can be next to impossible to discern between rational and irrational fears.

Tracey recalls recent postings on a professional Facebook groups she belongs to. “There was a thread talking about you know how hard it is right now to differentiate between rational and irrational fear and anxiety,” she says. “Because there’s a lot that we would have considered irrational that’s actually pretty rational right now for people. I mean we’ve all got a little anxiety right now.” 

And anxiety is not necessarily a bad thing.

“Anxiety is an adaptive response that our bodies and our minds do when we perceive a threat, feel unsafe,” says Tracey. “And I always say it’s a very primal response and very adaptive and has helped us as a species to survive and o be on guard, and to protect our young and all of those things. But when it’s overactive, it becomes problematic.”

I ask Tracey what she recommends people do to cope with their heightened levels of anxiety.

“That’s a really good question,” she says. “There are some things that can be helpful. I’ve been telling people to try to maintain a routine. So many of us have routine changes because so many people are working from home, or have kids at home, or just have changes in their day-to-day life right now. So as much as possible, maintain your routines, and by that I mean bed times, getting up times, meal times and things like that.”

And though social media is a double-edged sword, it does provide us, in these days of isolation, a very basic human need.

“Stay connected,” says Tracey. “I heard a psychiatrist on one of the morning news shows last week who was talking about the term social distance that we’re using so much, saying that we really should be saying physical distance because we are social beings and we need to stay connected to each other. So maintaining social connections while maintaining physical distance is really, really important. Use the internet, stay connected to neighbors and friends and family. As much as we curse the internet and social media at times, it really helps us to stay connected right now. The disadvantage of social media is that misinformation can be spread widely.”

And don’t underestimate the importance of fresh air, sunlight and exercise.

“I know when we’re fearful it’s easier to just hole up inside, but fresh air’s really important.” Tracey says.  “There’s really no risk of getting outside your door and getting some natural light on your face, some fresh air, despite the pollen right now. And getting some exercise, moving your body. Whether it’s a dance party in your kitchen or an online yoga class, just get your body moving.”

I ask if it’s a particularly difficult time for new or expectant mother when the world goes into a lockdown mode, and the future looks apocalyptic, in a way

“It’s incredibly difficult for people with new babies,” says Tracey.  “Although the flip side of it is it’s a really good time to just hole up with your family and bond with your baby and all of that. And for women who are getting ready to have babies especially, this is really devastating right now to think about going into the hospital to have a baby and hospitals are really limiting how many people can be there and all of that. Pretty devastating, moms had lovely visions of bringing their babies into the world.”

To preserve mental health in these trying times, Tracey also recommends that people limit the amount of news they watch or read or listen to daily.

“Be intentional about how much news you’re watching,“ she says. “It might be smart for some people to limit the amount of news that they’re taking in because it can really increase your anxiety a lot.”

And then there’s this.

“It’s good to distract yourself,” says Trace Wingold. “Distraction is a good coping skill in a lot of situations. You don’t want to always distract yourself from your feelings or you’re not dealing with them, but in times like these it’s so important to distract yourself. Just pretend like it’s normal for a few hours, and it’s going to make you feel better.