MGH campus transformation
MGH’s campus transformation continues with major renovation work. Patients and visitors can expect to experience noise, hallway closures and detours around the hospital. Learn more about our campus transformation.
MGH’s campus transformation continues with major renovation work. Patients and visitors can expect to experience noise, hallway closures and detours around the hospital. Learn more about our campus transformation.
Lois Didyk, social worker at Michael Garron Hospital, shares her tips on how to deal with anxiety as you wait for your COVID-19 test results, and how you can incorporate these coping tools into today’s new normal.
So you’ve had the nose swab. And now comes the hard part...waiting for your results. I hear you. As I write this, I’m on day two of waiting for mine.
By the time this health crisis is over, many of us will be very familiar with the particular feelings that come with this kind of waiting, also known as anticipatory anxiety. This is when our thoughts and bodies are consumed with worst-case scenarios, dread and fear for what might come. Anticipatory anxiety is a normal response, our body’s natural mechanism for protecting us from danger. But it’s not always helpful, and it can be really uncomfortable. The key to managing anticipatory anxiety is to shift it; to recognize when it’s happening, and to interrupt the downward spiral.
Here are my 3 “Ds” for getting through the anxiety that comes with waiting for test results.
Update: just got my test results back, which are negative. While the waiting part is over, I’ve decided to keep up the same practices. Whether I had tested negative or positive, these practices are still my safeguards—to keep myself and everyone around me safe, and to manage my own anxiety.
Please take a moment to consider your 3Ds!