Coronavirus and Mental Health: Advice for Dealing with an Emergency

This moment, when all of us are asked for the collective sacrifice of staying as much as possible in our homes to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, may not be easy to manage. Anxiety about the future, the fear of contagion, the concern for our loved ones from whom we may be separated and the closure at home psychologically are difficult to deal with.

We asked Dr. Maria Antonietta Gulino, president of the Order of Psychologists of Tuscany, to give us some advice to take care of our mental health.

Doctor Gulino, how can we face this moment?

We must follow what we call the three Cs: calm, caution and right controls . We can use this time to recover resources of ourselves lost, archived over time, that we forgot to have because in our busy life we ​​often run and leave many things behind. In this moment of forced enclosure we can recover what we usually don't have the time to do, take care of ourselves, our hobbies and also relationships with others.

What are the domestic activities that can help us release the tension?

The strategy is to dedicate ourselves to what we like and what we usually can't do, like talking to a friend we haven't heard for a long time, reading that book bought a year ago and never browsed, cooking, painting, gardening, playing, tidying up at home or exercising. We can try to make the best use of this time.

Instead how can you manage the fear of contagion?

Fear in general is a healthy emotional state because it is an adaptive response of the individual to the threats of the environment: a healthy response of fear in the face of danger is what has allowed us as a human species to survive but must not become excessive, otherwise it can compromise physical and mental well-being. If we are too afraid and always on alert our immune system is affected, goes into stress, and therefore can make us more vulnerable, also too much fear also compromises psychological and behavioral health, can make us do irrational actions that can harm us. So my advice is always to keep calm, use the necessary precautions and above all keep correct information, because being informed reduces the state of alert.

Speaking of information, can overexposure increase panic?

Good information is good, so I'm referring to the official information that comes from the Ministry of Health, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità or WHO and protects us from fake news. However, informing us badly hurts: unofficial news, overexposure to television and news programs, can increase the state of alert. The right strategy is halfway: we do not minimize but we are not alarmed.

Is he who lives alone more at psychological risk?

Those who are alone perhaps at this moment are more equipped than those who usually stay with family because they are used to it, but they can certainly feel even further away from others. In this bad emergency, I advise you to stimulate our civic sense and try, always preserving your health, to help those who are alone, I think of the elderly person who lives in your apartment building and cannot go out to do the shopping.

How to explain this difficult moment to children?

Children need clarity, simple explanations and not anxiety and tension. We need to explain to the children that we are all at home right now because there is a disease and we want to be well and to be well, this disease must not spread, so we can go back to school first and play with our friends.
We have to give explanations to the children who receive everything as radar, pick up the emotions and hyper activations of the parents who are perhaps fixed on the news and this is not good for them.

I advise parents to keep informed but not to always and only talk about Coronavirus: listen to music, watch cartoons, tell jokes, in short spend time with your children without the coronavirus being always present in the house.