How Lovie Simone Stopped 'Running From Her Problems' and Improved Her Mental Health During COVID-19

Welcome to Deep Dives, a new Health video series where inspiring people talk about a health topic that's meaningful to them and share relatable stories around health and wellness. Watch Lovie Simone's Deep Dive above!

Actor Lovie Simone, 21, known for her role in Selah and the Spades, has managed to find a pretty big silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic: Quarantining forced her work on her mental health. Staying home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus gave Simone ample time to consider how she'd been processing her problems—and how she could get better at working through them.

"I realized when the world was open, I was really just running away from my problems actively," Simone tells Health. Before the pandemic started, Simone, who is in the new The Craft: Legacy film, used her schedule as an excuse to avoid dealing with her issues, telling herself that she was working and therefore didn't need to address whatever was going on in her life. But quarantining helped her realize how unhealthy that was and gave her space to address her feelings head-on.

"Having this time of stillness and not being able to run from that feeling of helplessness and hopelessness I feel like was really good for me—is good for me," Simone says. "I really had to sit down and slow down and do the kneading out of my feelings that I've been feeling for a while now." Putting in the effort to work on her mental health has paid off: "It's easier for me to get in touch with my intuition now," Simone explains.

Aside from taking the time to prioritize her feelings, Simone (like many of us) has been spending time on TikTok during Covid, which has served as a bright spot during a politically tumultuous year. "Even though I don't have a TikTok, I have loved the TikTok generation. I love seeing the amount of activism on there, [and] I love seeing the community on there," Simone says.

She went on to say that she's found hope in the platform because of its ability to unite people around social justice issues. TikTok also makes people laugh during a year when it's often been hard to do so. "Ever since this whole quarantine/pandemic started, I feel like people have been running [to TikTok] for a sense of community and humor. Because that's really what people need in such a dark time."

You can watch the rest of Simone's deep dive in the video above.