Counsellor: Smoke and haze causing summertime sadness

“Essentially, we’re in a sustained stress period, we just shifted from COVID pandemic worries, we finally got to free up, go outside, meet with people and now we can’t be outside, and we’re forced back inside which were all the places we were told to avoid,” C&C Resources for Life Counsellor Jolene Lindsey said.

Patients have been feeling more anxious, depressed, and isolated – but there are ways to keep your spirits up.

“If we can play however we can, if we can escape town, find somewhere for a day where we can escape to. Even if it’s as smoky but you can have more fun, give yourself that joy and that pleasure. Because when we’re constantly in that constant state of stress, there’s no breathing room and there’s no room to prepare for the next crisis,” added Lindsey.

Lindsey explained that your mental state is connected to your physical state, and if you’re feeling symptoms from the smoke like migraines and sinus congestion, you should care for that too.

“When you’re in the shower, even if it’s not saline solution, if you can clean your nostrils by taking some of the water inside your nose and wash your nostrils and spit it out, that would be really good to wash out the nostrils daily,” suggested Manshadi Pharmacy Owner and Pharmacist Missagh Manshadi.

After a year of being told to wear masks and stay indoors, many Kamloops residents are feeling like they are grieving the loss of summer.

Children, the elderly, and pretty much everyone else has pent up energy they were excited to burn this summer.

“There’s a lot of grief and probably a lot of resentment around that too. And ultimately its because so much of it is out of our control, right, when things feel out of our control they can impact us more,” Lindsey continued.

The best way to get through this tough time is to talk about it with family and friends.

“Normalize your experience. There’s a lot of people who are pretending like this shouldn’t be bothering them or they’re acting as if it shouldn’t. Normalize the fact that this is disturbing for us, it is unsettling, it is uncomfortable,” she said.

by Amandalina Letterio

Counsellor: Smoke and haze causing summertime sadness

Our Community