How to cope with stress and be kind to yourself, according to the World Health Organization's new illustrated guide

• The World Health Organization has put out a guide to coping with stress during adverse times, which includes advice about unhooking from unkind thoughts and being kind to yourself.
• The book wasn't specifically designed to help during COVID-19, but was years in the making, informed by field testing.
• Its release echoes what WHO leaders have been saying for weeks: we need to take mental health seriously during the pandemic.
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With most of the world still reeling from the effects of COVID-19, the World Health Organization has put out an illustrated guide to coping with stress, which comes with segments on grounding yourself and unhooking from unkind thoughts.

The guide, published April 29, coincides with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, marked globally in May. Though it was commissioned years before the pandemic, it echoes much of what WHO leaders have been speaking about over the last few weeks: we need to take mental health seriously during the pandemic.

"Although it wasn't specifically developed to help people manage stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that it will help people who are currently feeling under stress as a result of the pandemic," WHO communications officer Alison Brunier told Insider in an email.

Some sociologists have warned the public about an impending "grief tsunami," as many mourn the deaths of those who have passed due to COVID-19, and many suffer the effects of being socially isolated or lacking support for mental health, eating disorders, or alcohol use disorders. Overdose deaths are on the rise in many states, from Texas to Pennsylvania.

The guide was put out by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use and comes with audio narrated by African voiceover talent Sanjo Ogunseye and illustrations by Julie Smith. It is currently being translated into other languages, and the translation versions will be online sometime in the next few weeks.

Many organizations are releasing guides to coping with the mental health effects of COVID-19

A number of guides are being published, from one on how to support the mental health of frontline workers to guides created by California's surgeon general on how to stay calm during a crisis to the CDC's official mental health guides.

There are mental health guides for beverage and hospitality professionals, for caregivers of veterans, and for people with mental illness.

"America is about to experience an unprecedented loss of life. Even while it is very difficult to predict just how many we'll lose to COVID-19, we wanted to shed light on the collateral damage this will have on families," said Emily Smith-Greenaway, author of the grief tsunami study.

"It is important that the burden of bereavement, and its potential mental and physical health consequences, is factored into discussions of the public health challenge facing America and all nations."