Translated material
How to stay in a house
Coronavirus is dangerous, but mental infections carry no less risks. What to do so that you do not blow the roof
You read Facebook, and the doctor, after whose posts you have been watching for many years, writes: "It is useful for all coronasceptics to read." Then follows the repost - the Italian nurse with a thirty -year -old experience on the air says:
“They die completely alone. They have no one other than us. This is a terrible death-in complete solitude, without close and relatives nearby, without the opportunity to mourn the loss and bury humanly. ”
It’s hard to listen to her, the person was inside the horror and - clearly in a panic.
And the next post is from a little -known person who reports that there are already thousands of deaths in Russia. What happens next? Panic. About how it arises and what it leads to, we talk with two experts - a psychologist and psychiatrist.
“Have you decided to repost? Read to a hundred ... "
Sergey Enikopolov, psychologist, associate professor of the department of neuro- and pathopsychology of Moscow State University
- It is necessary for people who are postponing unrearated panic information, to report that it is more harmful than coronavirus. Panic is associated with psychosomatics. All fears, especially for a long time, reduce immunity and increase the probability of catching the virus. People in stress become very vulnerable. So you got some terrible information, the hand stretches to repaire, read to a hundred, and even better up to 150. If you do not scratch, it will pass by itself.
- While you count up to a hundred, questions come, where did the author of the post take such information?
- Certainly. All over the world today, the mass panic that our ancestors experienced when there were plague, cholera, Spaniard, and so on. Closter events similar to what is happening - Ebola, bird flu, pork. But if you ask people, it turns out that most of them do not remember about it at all. The nature of panic is well known to world science during terrorist attacks, earthquakes, natural disasters, but there is absolutely no information about mass panic for epidemics, although they were. This is a question for psychologists and sociologists - why they did not react then.
“But it is unlikely that people will forget about coronavirus the way they forgot about the bird flu.” He changed his course of life too sharply. There was no such thing that countries, educational institutions, theaters were closed - all at once ...
- There were no so many deaths. And the Ebola virus was localized in Africa, we could only sympathize from afar. A gigantic dependence on social networks was still added to the coronavirus. People do not want to call it dependence, but, generally speaking, we all live on these networks, many listen only to their friends. The authoritative opinion breaks up because the source is called: "One of my friends told." This acquaintance is dissolved. There is no one to make a claim to ...
-Now some adaptation to a new reality has occurred, and there is no mass panic.
- There are people who are afraid, but there are - who are not afraid. Here, Euro -Yus showed the crowd of our believers who go to the Kazan Cathedral, and the other crowd goes to the cathedral in Moscow, absolutely ignoring the recommendations not to crowd, well, at least go a goose. They go in a crowd and at the same time declare that nothing is scary to the believer.
- There is a commandment: do not tempt the Lord your God ...
- But, apparently, they do not teach commandments. Another part of people rushed to buy cereals and other products. At the same time, they still infect a certain number of people-this is an indicator of a big panic. In social networks they explain that it will end soon, it is urgent to buy everything, my friend from such and such a city said that there is nothing there already, the regiments are empty.
- How should the authorities behave in such a situation?
- It is in this sense that I have no special claims to the authorities. There are complaints about the public and the media. Many television shows, especially in the early days, laid out a scoreboard, where the word “dead” from coronavirus was in large letters, and the word “recovered” were small.
I would do the opposite - in capital letters the number of recovered. In all countries, the number of dead is less.
Both that and this is true, we do not hide anything. That is, this is that the glass is half empty, but it is half full. You see, it really is. But if I pay attention only to the empty part, then I am amplifying and so ready fears.
"Do not think for the Lord God"
Alexander Litvinov, psychiatrist, psychotherapist of the Moscow Psychoendocrinological Center
- All news of an extreme nature in each case fall, as we say, on one or another fertile ground. Depending on the fact that at the time of panic in this basis it prevailed, you can understand what reactions will be. In some, denial is a reactive formation. There will be a bravado, a demonstration of nonsense, the humor of the gallows, which we see in memes today. Others have an alarming, hypochondriacal mood, taking the character of an universal catastrophe. It seems to them that everything will only be worse, this condition launches, depending on the soil, different processes. Someone goes into psychosomatics, someone depending on all stripes-from banal alcohol with breakdowns to the game.
We are talking about psychophysiology, the psyche is an important part, but not the only link in this chain. In a panic, the endocrine system works accordingly. People with more developed intelligence immediately turn on, balanced, reasonably interpreting what is happening. They use preventive measures, use napkins with alcohol, often wash their hands. It all depends on the degree of organization of the personality of a person.
The mental epidemic, from my point of view, brings even more harm than the virus itself. The exhausting such expectation of a bad effect on physiology and can affect distant results.
- I know people who only read information about the virus for days, watch stories from Italy, and worry all the time. Should there be some kind of information diet? How to withstand yourself in self -isolation? How to protect the psyche?
- Without scolding yourself, to remind yourself delicately of the advisability of being here and now, and not there and then, mentally transferring to the future, drawing apocalyptic paintings for yourself. To be here and now, the keyword is Today. Be in the framework of this day, do not think about what will happen tomorrow, do not think for the Lord God. Do not tell yourself “Don’t think about it”, but say “Think about what is now within your accessibility. Get your hands once again, smile, but wash. Focus on some matters that you can really affect. If the work schedule allows, follow Brodsky’s advice: “Do not leave the room, do not make a mistake.”
Folk wisdom says: “Live today, because tomorrow it can be worse than yesterday”, I completely agree with her. Today is the only time when you can really do something, including minimizing the degree of danger of this virus. Nature tells us: "Guys, do not forget that everyone has their own territory, there is a house."
- As in childhood, “I'm in the house”?
- Yes, and as a metaphor "my house is my fortress." This does not mean that it is worth it to cover such protection as bags of salt. The best way will tell you your personal stay in this format. “True peace of mind comes from the adoption of the worst,” the Chinese philosopher Lao Tsi taught. To accept does not mean to come to terms and inactive. To accept is to focus on reality (and not on virtual passions) and not waste psychic energy on servicing endless fantasies on the topic “What if? ..”.
As a doctor, I once again recall the Bulgakov professor Preobrazhensky, who advised not to read Soviet newspapers. I believe that in our everywhere the main newspaper named Social Networks, a drop of suspended, competent information instantly and without a trace disappears into the sea of clicaceous reatcher. Painting infection often begins here.