Coping with Coronavirus: How to Stay Calm and Protect your Mental Health

. Our task today is not to teach ourselves that there is nothing to fear – clearly, there is – but rather to teach ourselves how to keep our anxiety proportionate to the risk, how to live with a certain amount of worry, and how to navigate the uncertainty that coronavirus has brought to our broader lives.

catastrophisation’, which is an irrational tendency to believe, and behave as if, a given problem is far worse than it really is.

The best approach is to tell children that there is a problem with a new illness, but that simple things like washing our hands with greater care can help everyone to stay well. Children need reassurance that they are safe. Like adults, they derive great comfort from structure in their day. Children also imitate their parents, so be sure to limit your media consumption, take plenty of exercise and try to maintain the rhythms of daily life as best as possible.