Tune in as Dr. Maddux talks about why habits are so important for many people. Maddux and Connolly will also be joined by Everyday Health’s executive editor, Dakila Divina, who speaks about how the loss of daily routine has personally impacted him since the coronavirus pandemic began. RELATED: Tippi Coronavirus: Tips for Living With COVID-19 The following are some highlights from an edited transcript of the interview. Maureen Connolly: Your work is focused on areas of anxiety and depression and how they affect general well-being. The pandemic has caused life to come to a screeching halt — how does that impact someone’s sense of well-being? James Maddux: The first thing I would address is the notion that life has come to a screeching halt. I think that’s probably a belief that is not conducive to well-being. Life has changed. Life has slowed down for some people in some ways. Life has speeded up for some people in some ways. Everyone is dealing with this differently, and some people are having a much, much tougher time than others. But if one says, “My life has come to a screeching halt,” that thought alone is going to induce stress, anxiety, and depression. I would discourage people from thinking those kinds of statements and more thinking, “How has my life changed? And how can I better adjust to it?” RELATED: 12 Questions Answered on How to Handle Anxiety in the Time of COVID-19 Connolly: In terms of routines and more structured days, what’s the thinking behind why structure helps and allows us to feel good? Maddux: We know from research that uncertainty is a big underlying factor for anxiety, and people’s lives have become much more unpredictable in lots of ways. Even going to the grocery store can feel unsafe to a lot of people. There’s a lot of unpredictability, but people can build predictability into their daily lives on a day-to-day basis. One thing I would suggest is to put aside for awhile thinking about how long this is going to last. If you can limit yourself to thinking of how to make this day more predictable and minimize stress and anxiety on this day, I think that could help people feel that their lives are a little bit more manageable. So, thinking in limited time frames and building in predictability on a day-to-day basis would probably be useful for a lot of people who are feeling like their lives are out of control. RELATED: How to Start a Self-Care Routine You’ll Follow Connolly: What’s your advice to people for some small but impactful things they can do to help make themselves well during this time? Maddux: My advice would be to sit down and make a list of the things, before this all happened, in your life that you found satisfying. Keep that list in front of you. And when you feel yourself becoming stressed, bored, upset, or depressed, look at that list and do one of those things. Even if it means watching a rerun of I Love Lucy that you’ve seen 100 times, do it. If it means going to your bookshelf and once again rearranging your books, and that makes you feel better or more organized, then do it. Make a list of the things that in your previous life, in the pre-COVID-19 period, that you found satisfying. And then you have a menu to choose from.
