Our mental health is being challenged to the extreme due to the worries and grieving over COVID. On top of this, we are legally required to stay at home. We turn kitchen worktops into office space, stuff the laptops in a corner whilst we eat, and try to educate our bored kids!

If you live with a partner then they too might be vying for work time; you argue, perhaps, about how you’ll continue to motivate the children. Or bicker about things like a difference in opinion, levels of hygiene, safety, etc.

Nothing in your new restricted lifestyles feels the same. It’s scary, so we take our fears out on each other. It’s the same, whatever your living dynamics are. You might house-share, and your friends are not being as careful as you think they should be.

Our frazzled emotions could erupt: we can only keep our feelings in for so long. We can’t even trundle into town to meet friends for a coffee. A huge row seems to swoon in from nowhere – you can’t even recall who started it or what initiated it. Before too long, you hurl nasty words that you don’t mean at each other!

It’s got to stop. If it doesn’t, it will play havoc with your mental health.

I get this issue far less now, simply down to saying “leave it out!” to my partner. I keep saying it, as many times as is required, until he starts laughing instead – and it works!

I love the language of the seventies: gritty Britain and saucy innuendos. I took the line from “Minder”, and it’s a favourite of my partner’s. Give it a go – let me know how you get on. You can choose any era, any language, any film or genre that you like. Simply pick a phrase that works for you and that you or the person you live with finds funny. It could be a helpful tip to break the tension!

In this unknown era, we need to nurture more harmony whilst strengthening our mental health.