Leading psychiatrist says focus on the present to keep mentally strong during Covid...

 A LEADING psychiatrist and author says  it's important not to get "obsessed" with the facts and figures surrounding coronavirus, if we want to keep good mental health in the weeks and months ahead.

Professor Brendan Kelly says we're in "abnormal times" at the moment and it's important that people focus on things they can control themselves, such as the wearing of their own face masks and adhering to restrictions etc.

"All around we can see what appear to be  injustices," he told Damien Tiernan on Deise Today.

"We can see people not wearing face masks, we hear stories about groups of people not adhering to guidelines. The best strategy for this is to focus on ourselves, what we can do, what we can control and how we can help others adhere to the guidelines. When we see other not not wearing a face masks, we don't know their story."

Brendan Kelly is a Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College in Dublin and also a Consultant Psychiatrist for Tallaght Hospital. He also published a book in recent months called 'Coping with Coronavirus: How to Stay Calm and Protect Your Mental Health'.

Prof. Kelly said it's a difficult and worrying time for people but everyone should just focus on today, and then this week.

"This is such a difficult time and we all have worries that are reasonable, worries that are irrational," he said.

"We worry about the future, and each other, and ourselves and it can seem infinite, endless. You cannot live with this infinite huge worry all of the time. So I think the best advice is to keep focused on today, keep focused on this week and accept the fact that longer term plans simply aren't feasible at the moment."

He said it's helpful to try to control our consumption of media on the global pandemic, in particular, to a couple of times a day because" we can't carry the weight of a global pandemic on our shoulders, every minute."

He says we have many other dimensions as people and communities, and we need to look at these strengths now.