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How to deal with fear

An accepted maxim is that everything is relative. In fact, that relativity acquires rank of truth with the advances of the physics of the begin of the century. In this context, is fear good, bad, or relative? Fear is inherent in the human being, in fact, it is a mechanism that we share with superior animals. It is the emotion that accompanies the experience of danger; and protects us. Fear is protective when there is danger, the problem is when it appears without real danger or when it blocks and paralyzes us.

 

In the current pandemic, being afraid is adaptive and what should help us STAY AT HOME and take the recommended protection measures. You have to accept that concern and uncertainty. But it is important not to block ourselves, that this danger does not become the center of our mental space. When that happens, anxiety symptoms appear (our brain reacts with stress when experiencing danger; and when it is maintained, the biological imbalance that is at the base of the symptoms appears).

 

How should we face it:

The first step is the acceptance that we live in a dangerous but transitory situation and that, if we take the measures, that danger is further from us.

 

The next is to keep that mental focus somewhere else. Appropriate strategies are discussed everywhere, although the reasons for giving them are sometimes poorly explained.

 

• More or less regular timetable. It is easier in situations of radical change like the present one to maintain the activity if it is planned in advance. If you wake up reluctantly and have to design the day it will be more difficult than if it is scheduled.

 

• Physical exercise. Physical exercise compensates for all the biological imbalances that the stress reaction produces. Protects our brain, hormonal and immune systems, making it more difficult for anxiety symptoms to appear.

 

• Oriental relaxation measures (meditation, yoga, mindfulness) have a protective impact on our brain. A trained person is able to focus that mental space and move it away from the dangerous situation. In essence it is concentrating on something other than what you fear.

 

• The rest of the measures can be explained in the same terms. Focus on the future, what are you going to do when this is over; use humor (whasapp, beyond all the inconveniences, is helping with fun); take advantage of time to do things that were forgotten or that we didn’t do due to lack of time; share with the family that accompanies us or contact the one that is far away.

 

 
 

It will be infinitely more difficult for those who suffer the loss of loved ones. And true is, that the current impotence to accompany them increases the suffering. There are no recipes, there is no consolation, in a pandemic or in a boom the loss is terrible. The path of mourning begins that will lead to acceptance and dialogue with our hearts, where we know that the missing person is. While that comes, cry, cry and cry, and remember.

 
 

Dr. Raúl Fernández-Villamor Ortiz
Psychiatry specialist

 

 

March 31, 2020

 

 

 

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