Developing strategies to reduce our anxiety over coronavirus
COVID-19 (coronavirus), unheard of a few months ago, today dominates the
news headlines and social media. Here, Medical Director of St Patrick's
Mental Health Services, Professor Paul Fearon, shares five strategies we can
use to reduce our anxiety in its wake.
With the advent of coronavirus, we are much more acutely aware of life's day
to day uncertainties. Coronavirus is influencing our actions and our future
plans, and is almost ever-present in our thoughts. The numbers of identified
cases increase almost daily and are likely to rise significantly over the
coming weeks.
Nobody is quite sure how this will play out. Some media outlets, at times,
tend to focus on 'what if' worst case scenarios in order to feed our
interest and fear.
Will the virus be contained and burn out, like SARS in 2002? Will it turn
out to be relatively mild and become endemic, or regularly found, in our
population, similar to swine flu in 2009? Or will it be more like the
Spanish flu that swept across the world just over a century ago?
Dealing with the unknown
In the face of such uncertainty, it's not surprising that many of us are
living with a heightened sense of anxiety, or even fear. We have become used
to having answers to most of our problems given to us, or at least to being
able to find those answers easily online. In this situation, however, there
are two difficulties.
First, as the virus spreads,
<https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/c36c85-covid-19-coronavirus/> official
advice is updated regularly to reflect these rapidly changing circumstances.
This may appear to some to be evidence that the authorities are indecisive
or unsure, when, in fact, the opposite is the case. Official advice in
epidemics and pandemics does, and must, change rapidly, and according to the
latest and best sources of information, so that we are always doing the
right thing at the right time.
Second, there is still much we do not know about this virus. Can we contain
it? How many people are infected but haven't yet been tested and therefore
confirmed as cases? When will we develop a vaccine? What is its true
mortality rate (the current best estimate is 3.4%)? What will be the effect
of this outbreak on our daily life, our jobs, our children's school
attendance, the wider economy?
Sense of powerlessness
So, how do we know what the appropriate level of anxiety is in our current
situation, and how do we best deal with it? This is a question for all of
us, but particularly for those who may be of a naturally anxious
disposition, and those with existing anxiety disorders or other mental
health difficulties.
We know from studies carried out during and after previous virus outbreaks
that, unsurprisingly, there are increased rates of anxiety, depression and
insomnia in the general population, and also an increased rate of relapse in
people with a pre-existing <https://www.stpatricks.ie/mental-health> mental
health condition, such as an anxiety disorder, depression, or psychotic
disorder.
The biggest issue for many of us at present may not be the virus in itself,
but rather the sense of powerlessness we feel in the face of a perceived
lack of knowledge. If this is so, we have to think about what we can do to
combat this and to reduce the feeling of powerlessness which causes much of
our anxiety.
Strategies to reduce anxiety and fear
There is a sense at the moment that, individually and collectively, we are
powerless to do anything that might make a difference in the current
situation: it's important that we challenge this idea. In doing so, we can
reduce some of our feelings of anxiety or even panic as we realise that
there are many things we can actively do to alter how we view and react to
our current circumstances. Five strategies we can use include:
*
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety>
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety> 1) Follow reliable information
*
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety>
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety> 2) Don't forget the basics
*
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety>
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety> 3) Deflect your anxiety
*
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety>
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety> 4) Use your experience and knowledge
*
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety>
<https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronaviru
s-anxiety> 5) Stop and do a reality check
In using these five strategies, not only will some or all of them be
effective individually, but, combined, they can give you back a sense of
control. You will no longer feel like a powerless, passive recipient of
worrying news, but, instead, you are actively taking steps to regain a sense
of control over your thoughts, fears and actions.
Focusing on what we do know
Our minds tend to focus on gaps in our knowledge and we tend to give less
thought to what we already know. So why not focus on what we do know, rather
than on what we don't?
Jon Henley did precisely this in a recent
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/07/coronavirus-reasons-to-be-rea
ssured> great piece in the Guardian, listing nine reasons to be reassured.
These include the astonishing facts that we identified the virus within
seven days and had mapped out its entire genetic code three days after this
(it took two years to identify HIV in the 1980s). Then, another three days
after we knew its genetic makeup, we had developed a reliable test for the
virus.
We also know from the evidence coming from China, where numbers of new cases
are dramatically reduced, that the virus can be contained, admittedly at
great human effort and economic cost. Furthermore, it takes a certain amount
of exposure to become infected (15 minutes within two metres of an infected
person); in the majority of cases, symptoms are mild, particularly in
younger children; many people who have been infected are already recovering;
and vaccines are already being worked on in multiple centres.
Fear is the real enemy
While not wanting to minimise the real health threat that coronavirus poses,
and acknowledging that we cannot be complacent, it's important that we
retain a sense of calm perspective, work together and do not allow our fears
to overwhelm us.
With this in mind, another good way of building this sense of community
spirit and resilience is by getting involved in the upcoming
<https://www.walkinmyshoes.ie/campaigns/mindyourselfie> #MindYourSelfie Day
from Walk in My Shoes, the flagship mental health awareness campaign from St
Patrick's. On #MindYourSelfie Day, we invite you to post a selfie, photo,
video or other preferred content with the hashtag #MindYourSelfie to your
social media profiles. This year, in light of the constant information
around coronavirus and other similarly upsetting news headlines, we are
asking you to take a moment to share something you do to mind your mental
health and wellbeing or how you create a sense of calm during a period when
anxiety levels are raised.
Focusing on evidence and facts, rather than fear and rumour, will help us to
navigate us through the weeks and months ahead.
Website:
https://www.stpatricks.ie/media-centre/blogs-articles/2020/march/coronavirus
-anxiety
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