Fear and anxiety about the coronavirus crisis? Read these useful tips to remain calm

As coronavirus infections grow globally, concern and panic increase. And it is not surprising that health organizations are constantly repeating how to better protect ourselves from infection. But how do you stay safe in this climate and simultaneously ensure that fear does not take over your life and become an unmanageable situation?

Here we have some tips for both, people who are not directly related to coronavirus infections and those who are.

If you are not affected by the disease:

Here anxiety can manifest itself in several ways: nervousness, agitation, alertness; not being able to stop thinking about something else; need to be constantly seeing and hearing information about the coronavirus; difficulty carrying out daily tasks. It is also perceived in those people who are having trouble falling asleep and who “find it difficult to control their concern and persistently ask their family members about their state of health, warning them of the serious dangers they run every time they leave the home”.

If you are feeling this way, you should:

• Identify thoughts that may cause you discomfort. “Constantly thinking about the disease can cause symptoms to appear or increase that increase your emotional distress.”

• Recognize our emotions and accept them. “If necessary, share your situation with those closest to you to find the help and support you need.”

• Ask yourself: Look for reality tests and reliable data. “Know the facts and reliable data offered by the official and scientific media and avoid information that does not come from these sources, avoiding alarmist information and images.”

• Inform your loved ones realistically. “In the case of minors or especially vulnerable people such as the elderly, do not lie to them and provide truthful explanations adapted to their level of understanding.”

• Avoid over information. “Being permanently connected will not make you better informed and could increase your sense of risk and nervousness unnecessarily.”

• Contrast the information you share. “If you use social media for information, try to do it with official sources.”

If you belong to the population that might be at risk according to the health authorities

• Follow the recommendations and preventive measures determined by the health authorities. Trust them because they know what to do. They have the knowledge and the means ».

Inform yourself realistically:

• Do not trivialize your risk “to try to avoid feeling afraid or apprehensive about the disease.”

• Nor magnify it. Be cautious and prudent without being alarmed.

• If you are recommended isolation measures, keep in mind that «it is a scenario that can lead you to feel stress, anxiety, loneliness, frustration, boredom and/or anger, along with feelings of fear and hopelessness, whose effects may last or appear even after confinement. Try to stay busy and connected with your loved ones.

• Generate a daily routine and take the opportunity to do those things that you like but that usually due to lack of time you cannot do (read books, watch movies, etc.).

If you got coronavirus

In addition to following the previous recommendations, you should:

• Manage your intrusive thoughts. Don’t put yourself in the worst early.

• Don’t be alarmed unnecessarily. Be realistic. The vast majority of people are healing.

• When you feel afraid, lean on the experience you have in similar situations. “He may not associate it now because he has more serious perception. Think how many illnesses you have successfully overcome in your life.

Control information consumption (with reliable sources)

Experts’ advice involves putting context to our fears and trying to calm them “personal resources that regulate us emotionally” and limited the consumption of news, putting the focus on official media. «The excessive search for information is an action that offers us the control to calm fear, but paradoxically increases it since it feeds the obsessive versus the rational. Making appropriate use of the information (especially that which comes from official media) and granting it an adequate mental space can also help us to go through current circumstances in the healthiest way possible ”.

Have a plan

To feel more in control: buy supplies (just the ones you need), ask if you could work from home if necessary.

Making a plan before the event occurs makes us feel that we have the situation under control and will make things easier the moment something arises. Experts recommend that we ask ourselves questions such as: Do I have supplies if I get sick? Can I work from home if necessary? Who do I have to look after the children? Do I have a thermometer, disinfectant, and medicine on hand? And that we consider how to respond “in case of”.

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