Coping With Coronavirus: How to Stay Calm and Protect Your Mental Health – A Psychological Toolkit

by Brendan Kelly

How worried should I be? What information can I trust? What should I tell the children?  Can I survive the panic, let alone the virus?

These are certainly challenging, unprecedented times. Allow pre-eminent psychiatrist Dr. Brendan Kelly to help you understand and cope with the unique stresses of today, as we all try to deal with the threat of COVID-19 within our homes, communities and throughout the world.

The anxiety associated with the coronavirus crisis is different to the anxiety seen in traditional disorders, because demonstrably there is something to fear, and that’s what makes this worry so ubiquitous, so persistent and so challenging to manage.

The good news is that, just as we are capable of finding sophisticated ways to make ourselves more anxious, we are equally good at finding sophisticated ways to manage our mental health, once we put our minds to it. Anxiety-management techniques help hugely once they are modified to suit the new situation we face, and in Coping with Coronavirus , Dr Brendan Kelly will give you all the practical tools you and your family need to navigate these dark, uncertain days.

Both the author and the publisher are donating their proceeds from this book to charity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Buddhism

Paperback

First published March 23, 2020

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars -- For my fellow Anxious Andies, I appreciated having someone reorganize core principles of dealing with GAD into situational specific strategies for dealing with the current pandemic. It was helpful to see Kelly acknowledge that there is indeed something to be anxious about, but that assuming one is following the prescribed recommendations for social distancing, hand washing, etc. (these recommendations are the part of this book that will age fastest-- it already has re:wearing of face masks), one can still implement good anxiety management practices that work when there is less of a true risk element involved in the things inciting anxiety. I appreciated this as a good refresher for anyone who struggles with anxiety (especially health anxiety)

[Aisling Doonan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of facts, yes, but I found my mood was worse after reading and I had trouble sleeping. I was troubled by the fact it says face masks for the general public are nothing but a visual aid to mass panic. It will read a bit weird when public facemasks do become necessary. It was written quickly and published just as we face our lockdown and it shows.

[Johanna Haas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice little book about dealing with trauma, for those for whom Covic-19 is there first experience.

[Rina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This was another coronavirus book. This time, covering more of the human psyche angle rather than the scientific aspects of it.

The tips offered were good and pretty common sense. This would be a good book for beginner readers who didn’t usually read but would like to make an exception given the time.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have anxiety, this book is great! It's about being mindful during such crazy times. It's really reassuring and made me feel a lot mote calm in general (not only corona related). If you're looking for an informative book about the virus, this isn't the book. However, really enjoyed it

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic, a tad condescending and it kept weirdly referencing Buddhism. At least it was short.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some decent advice here, but it's dated by now (handwashing and to a lesser degree social distancing are the main tips given for protecting oneself, with only a passing mention of masks as possibly helpful), and it's not presented in a way that is especially clear to those who don't already have some background knowledge.
If you already know the basics of Buddhism and mindfulness, you'll feel right at home here. If you're not, you'll probably need more instruction than this book provides.

[Dustin L. Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful a year later

Found this read from my local library.
This book has been great for giving me advice about how to cope with the ongoing pandemic and how not to let it affect my mental health. I have been in a state of self discovery and self awareness for the past few months and this has helped me immensely think more of it.

[Tara Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a bit dated, but contains loads of reminders that I needed to hear. Bearing in mind that need data has emerged on the virus (re: mask wearing), it is a good quick read on managing the stress around the pandemic.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Frances Krumholtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Quick little read!

[Britt Wit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Kelly offers a helpful psychological toolkit for dealing with coronavirus by changing one's focus to one's individual actions. The toolkit's clarity of content, writing, and simple yet effective exercises are helpful. I also appreciate the emphasis on 'information mindfulness', namely being cognizant of whose videos/writings/social media posts you are reading, being mindful of their potential motivations, and how these messages may affect how you feel, and if so, impact your actions.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

heard about this while on yet another endless scroll of twitter and figured reading it would be a better form of procrastination than my mindless scrolling (was really going through it at the time, in a pretty bad place): one short ebook and a few chats with friends later i was feeling much much better. 100% worth a read, very calming and reassuring book and it's clear the author knows his stuff. i especially liked the bits about not projecting every single issue you have in your life onto coronavirus because i realized as i was reading it that this was something i had unknowingly been doing (eg "i'm struggling to find the motivation to study because of all this going on" which, while true to some extent, had been an issue for me since before i'd ever even heard the word "coronavirus"). so that was helpful for me to become aware of this. book is the perfect length as well, you'd read it in half an hour or 40 mins. good list of further resources at the end of the book as well. thanks a million for writing this, it's really improved my mood over the last 24 hours since i read it, and i hope to use the ideas and knowledge in it in the coming months.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we enter year two of the pandemic I found myself feeling despondent over the new omicron variant and in need of some perspective. This book was a helpful reminder of some good coping strategies. Some advice was a bit repetitive and other advice doesn’t work for me. I get sleepy scrolling on my phone, the blue light does not bother me at all.
I did agree with Dr. Kelly that social media is a poison on our society and we would all be better off deleting it.
And because I can, please get vaccinated, please get a booster. If you’re sick please stay home.

[Deirdre]

This has a lot of good information and ideas for how to mind your mental health during this period. It also points to how information changes over time because when it was written the advice was not to wear masks as much as now and it really does point to how sometimes advice can change based on evidence over time.
A useful book for mental health advice for this crisis but sadly the advice on wearing masks has dated somewhat.

[Lucy Lowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Coronavirus presents the world with two problems. The first problem is the illness caused by the new Coronavirus itself, COVID-19. The second problem is the anxiety and panic the virus triggers in the minds of virtually everyone who hears about it."
-Dr Brendan Kelly, Coping with Coronavirus

This book was incredibly factual, but kind of worsened my anxiety than helped it.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the fact Dr. Kelly acknowledges that about 7 billion people are all suffering from severe anxiety right now and that it is absolutely understandable. The focus is strictly on the anxiety caused by the virus rather than everything else this pandemic has caused to go wrong, but still, appreciated words of calmness.

[Nikki Deeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some useful points in this book but I hadn’t realised it was released so early in the year - it would be useful to have a follow up book exploring how to deal with the sustained level of panic and how to overcome the loneliness that goes hand in hand with 9 months of no social interaction.

[Sieglinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise and very useful guide that should be read and considered by anyone who is feeling stress or anxiety, either due to the Covid-19 pandemic or in general. The author is one of Ireland's top experts in the field of psychiatry.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information on the virus has changed a lot since the publication of this book in March so already needs updated. Some useful points but personally, I found most of the book just common sense. Might be a useful resource for others though!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much I didn’t already know, but helpful to read it all in one place. A quick, one sitting read.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great tips!

[S · Rating 1 out of 5]

A male psychiatrist using the terms hysteria and hysterical repeatedly in a book from 2020, really?