Melbournians right now will be feeling an immense sense of anxiety, overwhelm, and a lot of anger and frustration. As a fellow Melbournian, I can tell you that as I was watching the press conference on Friday afternoon I felt sick in my stomach and thought “here we go again”, followed quickly by - “well I’d rather this now than what we dealt with last year”. So yes, the emotional rollercoaster is real.

In the last week lots of children have been making big school transitions into kindergarten, prep and new classes. Big transitions are often a time of heightened emotions, anxiety and trepidation and can often trigger separation anxiety. This year after the challenges of COVID-19 it may be that more students than usual will be feeling strong emotions about school and about separating from their parents and so it is a good time to spend some time thinking about separation anxiety and how to best support our children and our students during this important time.

No one right now needs to be reminded that life is full of challenges, because goodness knows 2020 was an extremely difficult year for Australians and people all around the world. And even outside of the context of the New Year’s Eve bushfires, COVID and our experiences in lockdown, life is generally full of stress, heart break, mental health difficulties and challenging emotional experiences. Taking a step back from reality is a very effective way of experiencing a few moments of respite to help cope with life’s hardships.

Mental health is not something someone chooses to experience. It is something that is happening to them. We cannot choose or control what happens to us and what we experience however we can control what we do about it to a degree. When someone is struggling with their mental health, it can impact the system in which they are functioning and by this I mean their wider network. This includes family, friends, co-workers, etc. When our close loved ones are trying to support us, we need to keep in mind the impact mental health can have on them too.

We’re hurting here in Victoria. We’ve been in lockdown for months and we’re finding it hard to navigate these uncertain waters. When there’s uncertainty for this long we can feel fatigued from managing it all. Managing the change, our emotions, our physical health, and our social wellbeing can be challenging. Read here for more.

When you’re living with depression it can feel hard to get out of bed or off the couch as depression lowers your levels of energy, motivation and self-esteem, so the idea of engaging in activities to help your depression might feel overwhelming and intimidating. But there are some very good reasons why engaging in activities can be very helpful for depression. Read here for more.