In its 57-year history, crisis support and suicide prevention service Lifeline has never experienced demand like this.

The Australia-wide hotline has just smashed some unenviable records — March was its busiest month ever, and Good Friday was its busiest day ever.

Key points: Lifeline says March was its busiest month on record and Good Friday was its busiest day ever.

Lifeline says March was its busiest month on record and Good Friday was its busiest day ever. The crisis hotline received almost 90,000 calls in March, and more than 3200 calls on Good Friday.

The crisis hotline received almost 90,000 calls in March, and more than 3200 calls on Good Friday. The coronavirus shutdown has been attributed to the increase in calls to the service.

Lifeline chairman John Brogden said the records had been tumbling since the start of summer.

"In recent years, we've been answering about 2,500 calls a day," he said.

"That went up to 2,900 calls a day when the bushfires became very severe back in December.

"Now we've had the coronavirus [shutdown], we've seen our calls get as high as 3,200 a day — that's the highest we've ever seen."

Mr Brogden said about half of the calls came from people talking about the COVID-19 crisis.

"These are extraordinary numbers and it demonstrates the stress on people's mental health that we're seeing with the coronavirus."

All the lonely people

He said while social distancing and self-isolation were helping win the war against the virus, one of the accidental casualties was mental health.

"We're seeing significant growth in anxiety and we're seeing real loneliness.

"[The Government] is effectively saying don't socialise, don't leave home — it can be a very, very confronting message for some people ... for those who already have issues with loneliness.

"We receive a lot of calls every day from people who are lonely; as bad as this sounds, Lifeline is often the only person that some people speak to every day."

The shutdown is also triggering anxiety in people, even in those who may never have experienced it before," Mr Brogden said.

He said additional funding from state and federal governments had allowed Lifeline to answer more calls.

"We have more paid staff, we have more volunteer hours," he said.

"We're receiving more calls than ever before and our volunteers are saying, 'Listen, I'll do another shift because we know this is a difficult time for people'."

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Many people are concentrating on what they're not doing more than what they are doing. ( Supplied: Moyne Shire )

Not a good Friday for some

For many people, things came to a head on Good Friday.

Mr Brogden said the coronavirus restrictions on churches, travel, socialising and other typical Easter activities hit some people hard.

"People who would have been on the road or arriving at a campsite or whatever they do for their annual holiday, and might have done for 20 or 30 years, all of a sudden you're not doing it.

"You're sitting at home and you're concentrating on what you're not doing more than what you are doing.

"We saw a 500-call increase [on Good Friday] — we've never seen anything like that. Never."

Mr Brogden said the day-to-day number of calls also seemed to mirror the flow of coronavirus news.

"We think that if there's a couple of days of no big changes or announcements, then the numbers seem to drop.

"And if the Prime Minister or the premiers or the chief medical staff come out, or there's significant news that comes out, all of a sudden we see a jump up."

Tips for your mental health

Mr Brogden said it was alright not to feel all right and encouraged people to call Lifeline.

He offered four tips to help people at this time.

1. Keep a routine

"Don't spend seven days a week in your pyjamas. Get up in the morning, shower, eat breakfast, have a routine."

2. Exercise

"There's absolutely no doubt that exercise is important, so if you can get out for half an hour and go for a walk, that's very important."

3. Don't spend too much time following the news

"Don't absorb too much negative news. If you want to spend a day listening, reading and watching negative news at the moment, you can spend your entire day doing that, but that's not really good for you long term."

4. Stay in touch

"If you're feeling lonely and unwell, pick up the phone. Picking up the phone can make an enormous difference to someone's day."