The article is reprinted from the public account: Zen and Meditation
The copyright belongs to the original author. If there is any infringement, please contact the editor to delete it.
Recently, society has generally been caught in the panic and anxiety of hoarding antigens , medicines, and masks. Some people have stocked up on medicines and feel at ease; but there are also people who, because of excessive panic, have not been infected with the new coronavirus but have been admitted to the ICU due to taking too many medicines.
Faced with the current situation, what is more terrifying than the new coronavirus infection is "psychological panic".
How should we respond to the "psychological panic" caused by the current epidemic prevention and control policies? How to stabilize family members' emotions? How should the elderly with underlying diseases cope? How to psychologically improve immunity ? In this regard, Dr. He Zongling, director of the Comprehensive Department of Chengdu Mental Health Center and psychotherapist, answered the question.
Question: At present, some people are panicking. Once they find that someone around them has been diagnosed, they start to panic and even dare not go out. What kind of psychology does this stem from? How should the public respond correctly?
Answer: When facing a public health emergency, it is a natural psychological phenomenon for the public to have anxiety and fear. When faced with fear of the unknown, we all want to find a sense of psychological control to increase our sense of security.
Therefore, Appropriate anxiety will play a protective role , "Because you are nervous about a thing, you will try to cope with and solve it." But excessive expansion of anxiety is not necessary , and you may even fall into the "trap" of the epidemic due to excessive anxiety, affecting normal life and work.
We can make some attempts from these aspects to avoid the spread of anxiety.
First of all, try to build yourself up mentally. "No one can reduce the risk to zero." In addition to paying reasonable attention to information related to the epidemic, learn to focus on the present moment, spread your energy to some meaningful things in life, and cultivate your sense of efficacy in life.
Secondly, in the face of "exploding" epidemic information, if you do not filter, when there is too much information and it is conflicting, confusion will occur, which will affect self-efficacy and increase anxiety. We recommend that the public try to learn the latest information through official channels, treat unverified self-media information with caution, and learn to filter information.
asked: What should we do when we have anxiety?
answer: You can try self-psychological adjustment. Moderate and short-term anxiety will not affect our health, and we can tolerate and accept its existence psychologically. Since you can't change the current situation, you might as well adjust your state so that you will be more calm when facing the disease. You can also make adjustments to your lifestyle to ensure regular, adequate sleep, proper physical exercise, and insist on doing meaningful things in life, improve your control over life; you can also learn muscle breathing training and relaxation methods to help yourself relax physically and mentally.
Question: As the "backbone" of the family, young people will inevitably feel anxious about the elderly and children who are susceptible to the family. How should they adjust themselves at this time?
Answer: Since the elderly and children cannot be as rational as young people in receiving epidemic information, the elderly, especially the elderly, may be more likely to be nervous when receiving asymmetric information. At this time, young people, as the "backbone" of the family, can try to provide help from two aspects.
First of all, young people themselves must stabilize their emotions , because anxiety will be passed on. When you feel very anxious, your words and deeds will also show it unconsciously, which will convey this emotion to your family members and increase their anxiety.
At this time, we must play the role of "stable companion" - although we attach great importance to it in our hearts, we must be more emotionally stable so that they feel confident in coping with the current situation. " Trust is a kind of power that can be passed on to family members to help them reduce anxiety. ”
Secondly, faced with problems such as information lag and asymmetry among the elderly, young people can also sort out some scientific and reliable information, provide them with popular science and guide them on self-protection, so that they can be aware of it and feel more at ease.
asked: Under the current epidemic situation, what should we do for the elderly with underlying diseases?
Answer: People with underlying diseases have an increased risk of susceptibility. Therefore, it is first recommended to take personal protection to reduce susceptibility risks.
In terms of psychology, excessive anxiety, tension, and insomnia will also affect an individual's immunity and make them more susceptible to virus invasion. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone adjust their mentality, maintain a relaxed attitude, and ensure adequate sleep. This can improve the body's immunity. "Even if you encounter an infection, the damage to the body will be relatively reduced."
Question: If a family member is diagnosed, in addition to providing due care, how should the family alleviate the discomfort of the family member psychologically? Especially when they cannot get close contact with their families and receive face-to-face care.
Answer: It’s not just COVID-19. When people become physically sick, they will experience a psychological impact and become fragile and sensitive for a period of time. They need more emotional support and rely more on family members . They will go through a period of psychological anxiety, which is a natural reaction after falling ill.
At this time, in addition to providing due physical care, they must also provide sufficient psychological comfort. Family members must play the role of "psychological companion" and "be more patient and tolerant than before." Let them feel safe, cared for and understood, and help them get through the psychological trauma period. If the diagnosed person lives alone, you can provide more encouragement and support through WeChat, video, phone, etc.
Question: Does high stress really aggravate the condition? If you are diagnosed, how can you make yourself more relaxed?
Answer: High stress will indeed affect the condition. The impact of the disease on people depends on several aspects. One is the source of infection, "whether we have been exposed to the virus." Secondly, it is our "immunity" to fight the virus. If you are overly nervous, anxious, or insomnia, your immunity will also decrease, and your ability to fight the virus will also be weakened. But if you live a regular life, maintain a peaceful mind, have good sleep quality, and have normal immunity, you may be able to get over it faster even if you are infected.
How to psychologically improve "immunity"? First of all, infected people must maintain adequate sleep and a regular schedule during this period, and avoid staying up late at night and catching up on sleep during the day, which will disrupt their biological clock. Secondly, you need to build yourself up mentally. You can try breathing training, appropriate exercise, etc. to relax.
If you already have severe anxiety and cannot regulate it by yourself, or even the anxiety has turned into physical symptoms such as palpitation, chest tightness, restlessness, and restlessness, you can also seek help from a professional doctor.
Question: Some people have been feeling sore throat, dizziness and headache recently, but the antigen tests were negative multiple times. Is this due to anxiety?
Answer: This phenomenon is relatively common. We call it "psychosomatic reaction", that is, the psychological process will be reflected in the physical experience.. When a person is overly stressed for a long time and does not get enough rest, psychological stress will manifest in the form of physical symptoms, which is called a "somatic anxiety" reaction.
If no problem is found during the examination, you need to consider whether there is "somatic anxiety". We don’t need to be too nervous about this situation. It is recommended to do some self-psychological adjustment and ensure adequate sleep to alleviate the problem. If it is more serious, you can seek help from a professional psychologist for psychological counseling and psychotherapy.
asked: A confirmed patient has body pain, increased anxiety, and insomnia at night. What should I do?
Answer: The fever, pain and other symptoms caused by virus infection will itself affect our rest and increase anxiety and fear. However, anxiety and insomnia will in turn affect the recovery and relief of the disease. Just like a " snowball effect", dealing with this problem requires a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, accept scientific treatment, on the other hand, try to accept the current situation psychologically, reduce the psychological burden, and create a psychological foundation that is conducive to recovery, including a relaxed attitude, adequate sleep, and obtaining support from family and friends. If you suffer from severe insomnia or anxiety secondary to the condition, don’t hide your illness and avoid medical treatment. You can seek help from a professional psychologist in a timely manner.
Question: What psychological processes do the public generally go through in the face of public health emergencies?
Answer: In the face of public health emergencies, the public generally goes through three stages.
One is "psychological stress period" . When we face uncertain things, the fear of the unknown will cause people to feel nervous, scared, excessively anxious, and even have "psychosomatic reactions." After a period of time, it will gradually enter the "psychological debugging period" . As more information is obtained, the understanding of things will be more comprehensive than before, and individuals will try to adopt their own methods to deal with it. At this stage, there may still be anxiety and tension, but we will have more coping methods, and our inner sense of security and efficacy will be stronger. The third is the "psychological recovery period" . Everyone will gradually return to a stable life state, and psychologically begin to gradually accept and accept this state. "Although this matter may not be over yet." But because we already have a sense of psychological security, you will gradually calm down and treat it with a normal mind.
There are individual differences in the stages that each person goes through. If you still react violently to some information, repeatedly check and confirm, and feel uneasy, then you may still be in the "psychological debugging period." A greater number of people may have gradually viewed the present situation from a more scientific and rational perspective. They will protect themselves and follow official rational and scientific recommendations so that their normal work and life will not be affected by the epidemic. This has basically entered a period of psychological recovery.
People's Daily released a reference for typical symptoms of COVID-19 and commonly used drugs↓↓↓
Image source: People's Daily official Weibo (this platform is only for public welfare sharing, if there is any infringement, please contact us to delete)
Beijing Pharmaceutical Quality Control Center released suggestions for medication for home recovery of COVID-19 ↓↓↓
Comprehensive from: Red Star News, People's Daily, CCTV News
