A Psychiatrist's Advice to UAE Moms During COVID-19

Dr Shankar Kuchibatla, Medical Director at Openminds Center, Dubai, is one of the highly recommended psychiatrists in Dubai.

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Dr. Sankara Sreenivas Kuchibatla

Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Director
Openminds Psychiatry, Counselling and Neuroscience Centre

We sat with him to hear his view on how best to get through Covid-19 in UAE. In particular, he shares the importance of letting go of things that are out of our control, controlling our emotions and anxiety, and organizing a structure throughout the day.

What is the main source of our anxiety during Covid-19?

In my opinion, the worries are negative automatic thoughts. On the uncertainty that may lead to sadness, hopelessness, as they continue to stay away from families out there, specifically more in the case of expatriates, who have been living thousands of miles away from their families, and there is a lot of uncertainties such as when they are going to see them again. They are also constantly worried of how their families are keeping back home. In my opinion, these are the biggest worries of the people living in Dubai in the Covid-19

What is your advice to UAE moms on how to maintain their mental health?

First of all, my advice would be to learn to deal with the situation but start letting go of things that are out of our control. Covid-19 or Corona is something new, we are not responsible for that. We don’t have control of it. We have technologies but the whole world is going through the same issue. We are all doing our best to cope with the situation.

Second thing is being not very hard on themselves. Going through such a situation is a very big thing. Don’t be very hard on yourself. You are doing your best, coping with our works, retaining our jobs, also coping with e-learning and education process, and at the same time making sure we are safe from this infection.

Think of how we can help with the situation. Some of the tips I can give to the parents: take this as an opportunity to spend more time with the children and families and make the most out of it. Until this time, you might have been worrying that you don’t have enough time to spend with your kids. Weekends were for home errands and so forth. Now it is the opportunity where we can make most of it with family and children.

Control your worries and anxieties. Especially don’t allow to express it in front of the kids, because kids are very fast to absorb things when there is something going on. With parents, that is an indicator where their emotional issues to come in. So please control your anxieties. Selfcare is very important aspect here. Selfcare in the matters of keeping self-hygiene, doing meditation, or making sure you are spending some time with yourself. These are helpful so that you can control your anxiety and stress.

Organizing and having a structure through the day, and at the same time involving the kids in this structure is very important, so that you don’t see something very shocking, or demanding from the kids, and you can work according to the priorities.

Family time, playing indoor games and board games, watching movies, making sure the children are happy enough, constantly checking whether they have particular concerns, like to discuss that with the parent; these are one of the important things.

Last but not least, if anyone finds any deterioration in such emotional issues, seeking professional support from an expert would be very vital.

These are some of the advices I can give to the parents.

*Disclaimer: Please consider the information in this video/article most recent as per date and medical recommendations towards COVID-19 may change as the situation evolves.