At the start of this year, almost no-one could have predicted the current health situation. Within the space of a few weeks, a new coronavirus (Covid-19) has emerged, first in China, and gradually, spreading across countries all around the world. Of course it is part of the human experience to feel concerned when we are faced with an unpredictable threat such as this, but this virus is not only a threat to our health, but also a trigger for many people who have health anxiety or general anxiety. This blog post is to introduce you to a couple of ideas to help you to help yourself and manage the problem more effectively.
To be completely honest, I don’t just have professional experience of health anxiety, it is also a problem I have had difficulty with in the past and do have to pay attention to my own vulnerability to this trigger. I wanted to write this post to support anyone looking for tips to manage their anxiety and prevent it from escalating; particularly anyone who might be struggling with their health anxiety, general anxiety or even OCD being triggered by the threat of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
If you consider the people you know, you will probably notice there is a sliding scale of responses to the virus. At one end of the scale you will notice people experiencing high anxiety and panic, at the other end people sticking their head in the sand and saying, “It’s just flu, move on, what’s the fuss about?”, and also frequently (although not necessarily as obvious) the pragmatic and calm middle ground of realistic concern. You can probably see that there are problems at both extreme ends of the scale and that concern is going to benefit everyone the most.
If you stick your head in the sand and ignore the experts, you are more likely to adopt an “I’m alright Jack” attitude, and be less likely to pay attention to measures to slow down the spread of the illness. This has the downside of making it even harder for our wonderful NHS workers to do their jobs. In a worst case scenario this could mean they can’t help everyone who needs help. At the other end of the scale, if you panic, you will be suffering emotionally, lacking sleep, panic buying supplies you may not even need, and generally heaping distress on yourself. At worst, life could become consumed with the thoughts of the virus.
The sweet spot, you’ve guessed it is, to be appropriately concerned about the spread of the virus. Concern is anxiety at a lower level, but it is behaviourally different and less intense than anxiety. It helps us to be prepared, to keep the threat in perspective and to focus on what we can do to help ourselves, our loved ones and others in our communities. So, how can we stay concerned without tripping over into high anxiety…
What triggers the anxiety
Before I move on to the tips, it might help to understand why anxiety is so triggered by this threat. First off, if we are experiencing anxiety, there is always a threat behind it, and this threat may be real or it may be imagined. With the new coronavirus, the threat is real, but there is uncertainty about how big the threat is. There is uncertainty about whether or not you will get it, how severe it might be. There is uncertainty about whether loved ones, or vulnerable people you know will get it. There is uncertainty over how well they will be able to fight it off. There is uncertainty about how dangerous the virus is. There is uncertainty about how this will impact you and how you live your life. Maybe you are starting to see the crux of the problem? UNCERTAINTY! Anxiety can be driven by a need to be certain. This drive for certainty then locks you in to certain behaviours designed to try to achieve the clarity and certainty you are looking for. It also gets your mind on a quest to gain certainty by worrying. Worrying can be the mind’s way of trying to be more prepared, but unfortunately it’s fuel on the flames of anxiety. A quest for certainty where there is none keeps anxiety going, and is extremely distressing over time.
I’m going to list some of the common behaviours which may suggest you are anxious and how you can manage that. In no particular order, here are some pointers to look out for.
Coronavirus anxiety and what to do about it
Checking the news or social media
Hands up who recognises this? If this is you, then consider yourself caught in the trap of reassurance or certainty seeking. If you’re finding yourself regularly pressing refresh on social media hashtags about the virus, or seeking out constant ‘Live’ news coverage of the virus situation, you’re engaging in action which will keep your focus on the threat and keep your anxiety high. While from time to time you might come across a ‘good’ news story, there will be far more to stoke your anxiety and your doubts about how ‘safe’ you are.
Solution: Try limiting your news addiction to once or twice a day, though certainly not just before bed. Even better, stick to respected sources of information. For example World Health Organisation, Public Health England (if you’re in England) or your local and trusted source of expert information. The press may not be the place to look for keeping anxiety at bay. Journalists, although thorough, are human beings and can make mistakes or misinterpret statistics. Neither are they experts in pandemics, so the facts may be sometimes unfortunately distorted. In some papers the facts may be deliberately misleading to create sensational stories or for political point scoring. Stick with a trustworthy and scientific source and put a limit on how often you look at it. You may need to wean yourself off the checking if you are highly engaged in this activity.
Extensive rabbit hole research
If you, or others, have noticed you are becoming something of a armchair expert in virology or epidemiology, through excessive reading around the virus, then pay attention to how all the knowledge you have been accumulating might be fuelling your anxiety. The purpose of your research is most likely to try to find some vital piece of research to reassure yourself. You’ll know you are severely afflicted as you find yourself trying to download and decipher scientific papers on the coronavirus to see if you can glean the piece of information which might put your mind at ease. Most of these papers, need PhD level scientific knowledge and will be frustrating and lead you down a warren of rabbit holes. For every bit of reassurance you’ll find, you’ll find something else that contradicts it, or places a doubt in your mind.
Solution: Remind yourself that there are people far more qualified than you whose life work it is to make sense of the ongoing information about the virus and its spread. Your activity will only fuel your anxiety and take you away from living your life. This kind of behaviour is highly addictive and you will need to keep an eye on yourself for slipping back into the temptation (as with news/social media above). Hours can be spent down this rabbit hole. Spend this time doing something enjoyable or useful instead. For example, cook a meal for your freezer, catch up or write a note to a friend, spend it with people you care about.
Worrying
Worrying is your mind’s way of trying to protect you, or to prepare you for a worst case scenario. If you can step outside of this persuasive thought for a moment, is it genuinely the worry that protects you from the threat you are facing? Hmm, probably not. Worrying is unproductive and keeps us in a space of overthinking and unable to relax.
Solution: Practice redirecting your attention from worry thoughts which are unhelpful to you. This takes time and practice, acknowledge that your mind has been temporarily hijacked by anxious thinking and a need to achieve certainty about what is going to happen, then refocus on something outside of your mind. Experiment with what works best for you.
If you have a tendency to get stuck in worry mode, why not try The Worry Tree method which can help to put worries to one side and focus instead on what you can reasonably do.
Overpreparing
Overpreparing again keeps your focus in the threat in an unhelpful way. We have no certainty about what will happen over the coming weeks and months. We may have to self isolate, we may not; we may have greater restrictions placed on us regionally or as a whole country, so it’s impossible to plan for every possibility.
Solution: Reasonable planning seems sensible. Panic buying will increase your own anxiety, as well as others’. There’s nothing like an empty supermarket shelf to increase scarcity fears and place an emphasis on risk and danger. Make a proportionate plan in case you need to self isolate. This will be different for everyone, depending on how they live, who they live with, where they live. If you can’t go out and you don’t have reasonable stocks of food in your cupboard to see you through, think about who you could ask to help you out if this was a problem (friend, neighbour), or use online shopping if you don’t usually.
Overcautious actions
This is a tough one. If you have extreme levels of anxiety or OCD around fears of contamination and a highly developed sense of responsibility for preventing harm to your self or others, then you may engage in safety behaviours to prevent the spread of the virus which are above and beyond what is required. If you have had ERP for OCD, you will have heard that to overcome the problem you must tolerate ‘dirty’ hands for example. However, in the case of the current coronavirus, a decent exposure would be to wash your hands once according to World Health Organisation guidelines and resist the urge to go further than that.
Solution: Reasonable hygiene is healthy and helpful. Washing your hands as per NHS or World Health organisation guidelines is effective. Click here to see how to wash your hands. Soap and water is recommended as being as effective as antibacterial gels.
Similarly you can do your bit to prevent the spread by coughing or sneezing into a tissue, binning it and washing your hands after.
That’s just a snapshot of ideas which I hope might help. For further ideas, I highly recommend this video by Ali Matthu on coronavirus anxiety.
Despite the inevitable concern this virus has for many people, I hope that this post can go some way to helping you to keep things in perspective… to find the middle ground between overestimating and underestimating the threat. Stay healthy, stay concerned!
Ali Binns is a CBT therapist based in Bath, UK. Her special interest is in helping people to manage a range of anxiety problems.