Resilience and Wellbeing Strategies for Pandemic Fatigue in Times of Covid-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is truly one of the greatest collective health crises in history which have altered our life and living. For years, people have felt fatigued from following public health directives such as social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands frequently, and working or studying remotely without in-person interactions. In this paper, we explore strategies for resilience and wellbeing which can mitigate pandemic-caused stress and behavioural fatigue. We start with individual level strategies including reworking stress appraisals, the importance of psychological flexibility, reducing loneliness through adaptive online platform use, optimizing familial relationships when living in close quarters for a prolonged period, reducing symptoms of burnout and using adaptive distractions, using specific evidence-based resilience strategies. We discuss specific considerations which tap on our shared identities and shared responsibilities which can enhance a sense of community, especially for individuals from marginalized backgrounds and how suicide risks can be minimized.

Network analysis of pandemic fatigue symptoms in samples from five South American countries

“…symptoms and their relationship with other mental health problems (MacIntyre et al, 2021;Zarowsky & Rashid, 2022). This may not account for the presence of significant relationships between the individual symptoms of pandemic fatigue (Cai et al, 2022).…”

“…Various psychological factors have played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic, including pandemic fatigue (Haktanir et al, 2022, Morgul et al, 2021). However, as mentioned earlier, the study of pandemic fatigue was conducted based on traditional approaches that rely on total scale scores to determine the severity of symptoms and their relationship with other mental health problems (MacIntyre et al, 2021; Zarowsky & Rashid, 2022). This may not account for the presence of significant relationships between the individual symptoms of pandemic fatigue (Cai et al, 2022).…”

“…Therefore, pandemic fatigue has become an important factor in the spread of COVID-19. Pandemic fatigue has been examined extensively based on traditional approaches that use total scale scores to describe symptom severity and its relationships with other mental health variables (Labrague, 2021; MacIntyre et al, 2021; Zarowsky & Rashid, 2022). However, these approaches may miss meaningful relationship between individual symptoms (Cai et al, 2022).…”

Expressions of pandemic fatigue on digital platforms: a thematic analysis of sentiment and narratives for infodemic insights

“…A 2020 WHO European Regional Office report defined pandemic fatigue as “demotivation to engage in protection behaviours and seek COVID-19-related information, and as complacency, alienation and hopelessness” [ 6 ]. Other papers have defined pandemic fatigue as the ‘notion of behavioural fatigue associated with adherence to covid restrictions’ [ 7 ] or as a type of behavioural fatigue ‘characterized by reduced compliance with public health directives over time’ [ 8 ]. How pandemic fatigue has been measured in the literature points to further different ways of defining.…”

Moderating effect of work fatigue on the association between resilience and posttraumatic stress symptoms: a cross-sectional multi-country study among pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In contrast, when work fatigue is minimal, resilience may have a more potent protective effect [ 42 ]. However, this complex interaction between resilience, work fatigue, and PTSS among pharmacists remains an area that needs plenty of research [ 43 , 44 ].…”