Dr. Thompson put together a special issue on mental health resources

This book will be given free to individuals who complete the Multinational Survey on Coping with Covid19

Many mental health experts have given advices on how to manage stress and anxiety. Thompson put together mental health resources based on positive psyhchology.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, April 27, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The coronavirus pandemic, with the enforced lockdown, has created an unprecedented crisis in both physical and mental health. The rising levels of anxiety and other mental health problems have become as worrisome as the rising death tolls because mental health impacts all of us. A frequently rasied the question is: How to help people get to the other side of fear and griefing. Dr. Frankl's name is often mentioned.

“Many mental health specialists promote skills to manage stress and anxiety, such as breathing exercises or doing something enjoyable, such as from CDC,” said Dr. Geoffrey Thompson, Program Director of Sunshine Coast Health Centre. “But psychology can offer a lot of mental health tips to cultivate resilience. This may be a more economical and effective way to combat the global mental health crisis.”

As editor of the International Network on Personal Meaning’s (INPM) free newsletter, Positive Living in Difficult Times, Dr. Thompson has just produced a special issue on resilience, to complement resources on COVID-19 related mental health problems as provided by CAMH. (https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19).

In this special issue are a wide range of articles to help readers live well, in spite of isolation and hardships. Dr. Paul T. P. Wong, President of the International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM) and an international renowned expert on Viktor Frankl, explains how Frankl can helps us get to the other side of fear and anxiety. “As Viktor Frankl describes in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (1985), you can choose to become your best by making some changes in your life and live as if you were living a second time.”

Dr. Wong emphasizes that Frankl challenges us to turn the crisis into an opportunity for heroic achievement. “Frankl’s tragic optimism can equip us with the true grit to reaffirm inherent human dignity and value and pursue the ideal of living a meaningful.”

The theme that the disintegration of the old ways of life may provide the impetus to create new values was also emphasized by the famous Polish psychiatrist, Karzimierz Dabrowsy, who was a survivor of the Holocaust. His theory of Positive Disintegration is introduced by William Tiller, author of Personality Development Through Positive Disintegration: The Work of Kazimierz Dabrowski (2018).

Dabrowski discovered that those who achieved the most growth as autonomous individuals also seemed to have had experienced severe and sometimes repeated personal crises. “After loosening the initial integration, one can create a unique personality incorporating one’s personality ideal as well one’s unique hierarchy of values, aims, and goals in life. The outcome of the disintegration is growth and the creation of an individual’s autonomous personality—this is positive disintegration.”

In a moving testimony, psychotherapist Cenk Matalon, a frontline mental health worker, shared his personal journey from painful emotional tumult to achieving inner peace in the face of the pandemic in his article “Turning Tragedy into Grace in Times of Uncertainty and Panic.”

Tim Yu, a 3rd year University of Toronto student and a composer, shares his journey of overcoming pain and the loss of vocal cords. “Overcoming pain is my life story. Helping others to overcome their pain is my life mission; something I could hopefully stride towards through joining the INPM.”

Psychiatrist Dr. Debanjan Banjeree, Life Fellow, World Association of Mental Health, provides very practical advice in his article on “Life Within Closed Rooms.” He reminds us that “life reaches far beyond just COVID-19” and provides six strategies to maintain good mental health during lockdown.

An important news item is Nikolett Eisenbeck and David Carreno’s description of their “Multinational Research on Psychological Coping With COVID-19.” The other two principal investigators are Paul T. P. Wong, and Joshua Hicks. The online study aims to measure different mechanisms of psychological coping and their effects on mental health. A special focus is on items related to meaning in life, mature happiness, prosocial behavior, responsibility, and acceptance of negative emotions as potential buffers against stress and other mental health problems.

To respond to the online survey in English, click here: https://forms.gle/wX1hyPNsMtztQyup8. For further information and available languages, click here: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Psychological-coping-with-the-coronavirus-pandemic. As a reward for participating in this study, those who complete the survey receive Dr. Wong’s most recent ebook: Made for Resilience and Happiness: Effective Coping with Covid-19.

Positive Living in Difficult Times is free to the public and readers can subscribe here.
Contact for interview:
Geoffrey Thompson, PhD in Powell River, BC: geofft@meaning.ca
Paul T. P. Wong, PhD: in Toronto drpaulwong@gmail.com or telephone:416:546-5588

About the International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM) (www.meaning.ca
INPM promotes interdisciplinary research and public education on the fundamental roles of meaning and purpose in promoting mental health and flourishing in spite of suffering. It offers conferences, training programs,and publish a journal and a newsletter.

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