02/04/2020
🆘🆘🆘 COVID-19: we are in this together!!! 👐🏻
,,The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence” Brooks et al 2020.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👇🏻
I took a couple of ideas from this article in order to inform you about the consequences of a quarantine on our mental health and a few guidelines with small steps you can take in order to prevent yourself and your beloved ones from the negative outcomes.🐾
The literature doesn’t have exact data because the samples used in different researches differ and some of them aren’t very concludent. Anyways, we are living difficult times. And parents with kids know what I mean.💆🏻♀️💆🏻 But for your children is also very hard!
Unfortunetly, “the post-traumatic stress scores were four times higher in children who had been quarantined than in those who were not quarantined”. Let’s take a moment to think about the kids who can’t go to school anymore, who can’t socialize with their classmates and friends (in real life), who can’t use their energy on the football court while running and « fighting » with their teammates and so on.
For the general population, studies reported “emotional disturbance, depression, stress, low mood, irritability, insomnia, post-traumatic stress symptoms, anger and emotional exhaustion”. If you feel any of the above-mentioned symptoms, guess what? You aren’t the only one! And it’s completely normal to ask for help: you can start with the closest ones, but you can also call a psychologist. That’s nothing wrong with that! And many psychologists offer their services for free! For Romanians: get in touch with Lia Oltean Studii Psihologie Clinică și Psihoterapie - UBB
“A qualitative study reported that several participants described long-term behavioral changes after the quarantine period, such as vigilant handwashing and avoidance of crowds and, for some, the return to normality was delayed by many months”. Yes, this might happen as well! And it’s ok to wash your hands, but be careful not to develop some obsessive-compulsive behaviors and not to overestimate the immediate danger of contacting viruses. This can become a burden for you and for the ones around you. Also, not wanting to attend a meeting after the quarantine may be normal because of the fear, but you should easily let it go and understand the fact that things have calmed down meanwhile.
I’m not going to talk about the consequences on the health-care workers because is so much to say and hopefully I will be able to share with you another article on this subject soon. For now, just try to be at least a moral support for them and if you have a family member that works in a hospital right now, try as much as possible to ensure him or her of the tremendous work is doing! You can do it in my name as well! Much appreciated! 🎩
Other few brief ideas:📝
- One study showed that “those quarantined for more than 10 days showed significantly higher post-traumatic stress symptoms than those quarantined for less than 10 days”🆘
- Pregnant women are vey concerned about transmitting the virus to their babies🤰🏻
- Loss of usual routine can cause boredom, frustration, and a sense of isolation and that’s very stressful.🙅🏻♀️
- Poor information from public health authorities can be a stressor as well🤷🏻
- Financial loss can be a problem during quarantine but these effects can also be long lasting (pay attention to how you manage finances now, try to prioritize the necessities and postpone non-urgent expenses) 💶
What to do?✅✅✅
Governs🗳
- Give people as much information as possible related to the outbreak📺
- Provide adequate supplies so that people won’t panic for food and other necessities🍞
General population💁🏻💁🏾♂️💁🏻♀️💁🏽💁🏼♂️
- Activate your social networking, try to stay in touch with your relatives from other locations than you in order to know about their situation☎️
- Join support groups (online): from what I’ve seen there are various groups you can join for emotional support, for physical activities, hobbies, cooking and so on 👩🏻🍳 👨🏻🍳 🏋🏻♀️🏋🏾
And I would add: learn something new, something you never had the time to, clean your files on your computer, your wardrobe, join online courses, learn a new language, read that book you’ve never had the time for, start yoga, meditation or piano lessons. It’s only you that limit the options!🎹🎲🧘🏾♂️🧘🏻♀️📚📝
And be altruistic: stay at home because this is how you can protect others as well!❤️
