Written by Neville Bonaci
In the current crises and pandemic, there are many temptations for one to socially isolate themselves due to the current presence of a foreign agent that has the capacity to not only pose a threat to you but to also hurt your loved ones as well.
Research with regards to the nature of pandemics and their psychological effects is rather limited as of this moment, due to the nature of pandemics as typically not lasting for very long and with many issues with regards to sampling.
Nevertheless, this article will not focus on the nature of the disease, or what physical interventions one can take (if you are looking for such interventions, I kindly redirect you to the WHO website or covidmalta.com for suitable resources with regards to the outbreak). This article will instead focus on the psychological precursors to disease worry and how this may impact a person’s day-to-day perception. Later, I will provide you with some recommendations to help with coping.
Research shows that perceived risk for contracting disease helps one to make judgements on health-protective behaviours. An important factor when it comes to perceiving such risks is what one feels about it, and their beliefs with regards to the risk. In classic studies, it was found that individual’s who were to engage in reading sad new articles rather than happy news articles were more likely to make higher risk estimates for risky events, even when events in the sad news articles were irrelevant. Seemingly unrelated events and thoughts can lead to either more optimistic judgements of situations or more pessimistic judgements.
How is this related to COVID-19 you might ask? Seemingly judging risks for diseases or the risk of contracting diseases is not influenced by one factor, but by many. The level of social support one receives throughout his life is important in determining the level of worry that person will feel when it comes to experiencing an environmental risk to their health. One may be tempted to reduce the level of their social support, due to the isolating measures that are currently being undertaken.
What can this opportunity present you with?
Firstly, it is a good opportunity to identify your life-stressors that may be contributing towards exacerbating the situation. These can range from low levels of contact with friends, low levels of contact with family etc.
Secondly, realize that your own precautionary behaviours and your own beliefs about said behaviours might not match with what authorities say, but are based on your own previous experiences with said situations. These can range from your own upbringing, your lifestyle, and your exposure to diseases as well. Such situations such as the current pandemic, can then in fact lead to great levels of anxiety and fear, that may reduce your readiness to assimilate information.
‘’ When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.’’
Viktor Frankl
What can you do to reduce such anxious feelings?
As the above quote summarizes, you cannot really change the current situation unless there’s a choice for it such as a vaccine being distributed in the market, what you can do is the following:
- Surround yourself as much as possible with support. Physical support may not be readily available now but do try to initiate messenger calls with your friends and family in order to engage in more human interaction.
- Identify the bad sources of information in your life, and if possible, remove them immediately. Such information will only serve to make you think for negatively about said situation.
- Know the difference between public health authorities and a conspiracy theorist. All too often, you might have noticed that people come up with all sorts of imaginative theories as to the origins of the virus, the progression and the precautions one can take with regards to it. Listen to the people who actively study and are reporting, as a student there are also online resources that are constantly being published with regards to studies on the covid-19 virus. These sources are invaluable to alleviate some of your anxieties when it comes to your own vulnerability with regards to the virus.
- Finally, take this opportunity of the pandemic to also find and explore yourself a bit more. All too often, opportunities to reflect and to find other sources of meaning in life do not present themselves frequently. Try to take this moment as an opportunity to do just that.
I hope this article serves to alleviate some of your fears and has provided you with some information with regards to it. If you wish for counselling now, there are current ongoing attempts to provide online psychosocial services with regards to the pandemic.
cover image: source
