Tips for keeping your brain healthy while staying at home
- Take part in HersenCoach! With guidance from our brain experts, you will receive online coaching for 7 weeks to improve your brain health. Every Sunday, you start with a new topic and a new assignment for the week. The topics covered include exercise, nutrition, challenge, relaxation and sleep.
- View the page about ‘healthy brains’ or download/order one of the leaflets about this subject.
- Read the NOSop3 article with tips: how to stay mentally healthy at home.
- Read the AD article in which scientists call on people to keep exercising.
Tips for people with depression or depressive symptoms
The government advises avoiding social contact as much as possible. This isolation can cause people to become socially isolated. This can cause depressive symptoms, worsen depression or perhaps trigger a relapse. Here are some tips:
- Maintain your social contacts, for example by video calling.
- Would you like to connect with fellow sufferers?
- Through the MIND Connect app you can get in touch with like-minded people. You can search for someone you would like to contact based on, for example, experience, age or interests, and then email them.
- Would it help you to talk to fellow sufferers? Many of these national organizations offer peer support for people with mental health problems and their loved ones.
- At the Lijm de zorg Discord, you can chat with fellow sufferers about art, entertainment, problems, corona and other topics, but you can also meditate or join the disco with a DJ!
- Make sure you get a good night's sleep and work on your ‘sleep hygiene’. Take some time to learn about ways to sleep better. Read the tips for a good night's sleep here.
- Regular exercise can reduce your depressive symptoms. Start by simply taking a short walk. If you do not walk too close to other people, you will not be susceptible to the virus.
- Perhaps mindfulness is right for you? Try it out with this 3-minute breathing-space exercise.
- Sign up for our online HersenCoach training and keep your brain fit and healthy in this way.
- More tips (also for loved ones) on the page about depression.