It’s normal to feel anxiety, worry and grief any time you’re diagnosed with a medical condition – and that’s certainly true if you test positive for COVID-19, or are presumed to be positive. If your symptoms aren’t severe and you can recover at home, this will involve home isolation until it’s safe for you to be near others without potentially spreading the infection.
Isolation protects others from getting sick – but for the person who is sick, it might seem like one more thing on top of an already stressful situation. “Stress negatively affects your body, so while you rest up and work on recovering physically, it’s important to keep your mental health in check, too,” says psychiatrist Amit Anand, MD.