With the adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, the number of people infected with the new coronavirus has grown rapidly recently, and many relatives and friends around them have been infected. Faced with the many " positive " around you, many citizens will inevitably feel irritable and anxious. How to respond to the epidemic scientifically and protect mental health, on December 17, the reporter interviewed Ning Yatong, a psychotherapist at Xi'an Mental Health Center.
Learn to accept negative emotions and actively respond to
In such a special period, many people will feel anxious, worried, and even fear, fear that they will be infected, worry that their family members will be seriously ill and unable to cope with their symptoms after being infected, and worry that they will be infected to their family and colleagues after being infected. When we are anxious or unwell for a long time, we will have more or less negative emotions, and some will also show depression, sadness, loss of confidence and other conditions.
Ning Yatong told reporters that these emotional reactions are normal. Especially emotions like anxiety and fear are actually instinctive self-protection awareness at work, which can make us more vigilant and better respond to the current situation. However, anxiety and fear can also cause physical discomfort, such as conscious fever, dry and itchy throat, dizziness and headache, etc. In severe cases, it will reduce your immunity . How to prevent yourself from overreacting and maintaining a relatively good emotional state is important.
What are the ways to deal with negative emotions?
"Although it is normal for us to have negative emotions under the current situation, it does not mean that we can leave such emotions alone." Ning Yatong said that when negative emotions come, you can try the following methods:
1. Get accurate information. WeChat group, official account, short videos, everyone can obtain a large amount of epidemic-related information through different channels, but if you don’t gain the trust with discernment, it is easy to cause excessive anxiety and blind panic. Therefore, citizens need to choose authoritative channels to obtain knowledge about the new crown epidemic and self-protection measures and methods, and do not believe in rumors or spread rumors. Only in this way can they be aware of the epidemic and remain moderately nervous.
2. Scientific prevention and control, protect you, me and him. Properly wearing masks and standardizing hand hygiene is a powerful way to block the spread of virus , avoid going to crowded places and reduce the possibility of cross-infection. In fact, the Omickron virus is not scary now, what is scary is our fear of the virus. Most of the currently confirmed patients are asymptomatic infections with and mild cases. They should be quarantined and prevented, pay attention to bed rest, strengthen symptomatic support and treatment, and use drugs scientifically and standardize the use of medicines when necessary, and can fully recover. Generally, ordinary middle-aged and young people have a shorter course of illness and are less likely to be infected with the new crown vaccine and have completed the strengthening of immunization , so there is no need to panic too much.
3. Maintain a regular schedule. has been shown that sleeping for 1 hour late increases the risk of depression by 23%, maintaining good living habits and regular rhythms to maintain a mental health state.
4. Confide and keep in touch with people around you. Sharing your worries with your family and friends can not only relieve your anxiety, but also discover similarities with others during communication, and also find new ideas and solutions that are different from yourself, which can improve our pain tolerance to such problems.
5. Distract attention. We focus on one thing, reading, drawing, listening to music, writing, learning a new skill, etc., and enjoying the process. On the basis of planning, insisting on doing something valuable and meaningful to you can enhance our sense of control and pleasure in life, and also play an important role in dealing with negative emotions.
6. Timed exercise. Especially when you are irritated, you can do yoga, 8Duanjin or your favorite indoor exercise; you can also use exercise or fitness apps to make a remote appointment with your friends to exercise together. Persistence in training can help us better resist the intrusion of negative emotions.
7. Respiration and relaxation method. Individuals are in a highly stressed state for a long time, their physiological changes will also occur accordingly, such as insomnia or poor sleep quality, digestive dysfunction, dizziness and nausea, endocrine dysfunction, and increased blood pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to learn the correct relaxation skills, be able to consciously regulate the body's functions in a tense state, and improve psychological abilities. Choose a comfortable position (sitting or lying down), place one hand on the abdomen and the other hand on the chest, pay attention to exhale first, feel that there is enough space in the lungs before taking deep breaths later; then inhale with your nose, and count silently in your heart when inhaling: when inhaling, you can let the air enter the abdomen, feel the hand placed in your abdomen push up, and the chest just bulges slightly when the abdomen bulges; exhale and count silently in your heart. During the process of exhaling, you can imagine that all the unhappiness, worries, and pressure will slowly exhale with each exhalation. I feel that my body is becoming more and more relaxed and my mood is becoming more and more calm. Relax your anxiety for about 10 minutes each time.
8. Seek help in a timely manner if necessary. Mental health, like physical health, it is inevitable that you will not be able to cope with the need for medical treatment. If you find that your thoughts, emotions and behaviors are deviated from normal and the situation lasts for more than 2 weeks, you can first get remote professional psychological counseling services by calling the psychological hotline or using the online platform. If the results are not good, please inform your family or friends in time. Accompanied by them, go to the mental health hospital for treatment or call the 4008960960 psychological assistance hotline for consultation.
text/Xi'an Newspaper All-Media Reporter Gao Rui
Editor: Zhang Xiaoyu
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-