On 30th January 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had been declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, we have all adapted to a new lifestyle and gained new habits. Looking at the charts of infection and mortality has become one of the ordinaries of our lives.
“Coronavirus can easily infect people, even without entering the respiratory system.”
The threat of death from one of the microcosmos creatures scared all of us so much. However, we feel a little safer now with the decreasing number of infections and deaths. Some people say there will be a second wave of Covid-19 and it will start in September. Apart from the assumptions, if there is something clear about Covid-19, it is that the Coronavirus can easily infect people, even without entering the respiratory system.
Coronaphobia is a Millennium born disease, and according to scientific researchers, it has substantial adverse effects on human psychology. Whilst having Covid-19 as a threat to our physical presence is more than enough; it also has a severe impact on our psychology.
How is that happening? Well, there is more than one answer to this question. Social media platforms have enormous effects as triggers of psychological diseases. Fake news and misinformation on social media have been our enemies for different reasons. And now, they again play a crucial role in the Coronavirus pandemic. Fake news is spreading very quickly; and become trends easily on social media. The lack of control mechanisms on such platforms is causing people to feel anxious about what they’re reading. Therefore, verifying each news story with more than three sources is a great way to deal with fake news. However, this is not the first thing that comes to our minds in chaotic situations.
Additionally, “poor medical information, lengthening of quarantine restriction period, delay in the return to regular daily activities, increasing concerns” are the other reasons for Coronaphobia. Before we move on to the consequences of Coronaphobia, I want to clarify what Coronaphobia means. Coronaphobia is an extreme and irrational fear of Covid-19. Even so, not every person experiences Coronaphobia in the same way- there are different degrees of it.
“The extremism of every mental burden should be handled with professional support”
What are the consequences of Coronaphobia? In general terms, it causes “anxiety, stress, irritability, maladaptive behaviours, intolerance of uncertainty, emotional distress, adjustment disorder, PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), hyperactivity disorder, insomnia and other sleep disorders.” These causes are indeed enough to make someone’s life unbearable.
However, think of these psychological breakdowns as the first stages of Coronaphobia. When they worsen, people begin to experience “panic disorder, depression, obsession, delusions of having symptoms similar to COVID-19 and other paranoid ideas” (2020, Dubey). Also “panic attacks with a dread of losing control or impending doom and getting home-bound, thanatophobia- dread of death, hypochondriasis- morbid preoccupation of getting infected with Covid-19 at first sneeze, flare-up of OCD regarding contamination with ablutomania- compulsive washing” and even psychosis and schizophrenia are the disorders seen later stages of Coronaphobia.
It should be noted that, although I differentiate between the mental burdens for the early and later stages, the extremism of every mental burden should be handled with professional support.
On one clinical report, the first reported case of the onset of psychotic symptoms in a person with no history of psychiatric illnesses, triggered by the fear of Covid-19 had been investigated. As stated in the report;
“Through the mental exam done at her [a patient’s] admission to the hospital, we found her awake, disoriented in time and space, with poor insight, hallucinations both visual (“I see shadows”) and auditory of imperative, conversational and pejorative kind, attributed to the devil that possessed her, circumstantial thinking, delusions of persecution, guilt and punishment, poor abstraction capacity, marked psychotic anxiety, sense of guilt, sadness, frustration, self-undervaluation, hypobulia, hyporexia, insomnia.”
The report also made clear that Covid-19 can trigger psychotic symptoms in patients who have had previous mental health problems.
There was another report on early periods of Covid-19 which was conducted to examine the anxiety scale of Coronavirus. The research team asked their participants several questions and then they got these results;
- Alcohol/drug coping was measured by the item: “I used alcohol or other drugs to help me get through the fear and/or anxiety caused by the coronavirus.”
- Negative religious coping was measured by the item: “After thinking about the coronavirus, I wondered if God was angry with or had abandoned some people.”
- Passive suicidal ideation was measured by the item: “I wished I was already dead, so I did not have to deal with the coronavirus.”
- Extreme hopelessness was measured by the item: “After thinking about the coronavirus, I felt extremely hopeless about the future.”
I know I dive a bit too much into this and that might have made you a bit depressed (ironically), however, keep reading because you will only read positive things from now on.
“What we need to do right now is to keep reminding ourselves of our capabilities.”
Humankind has not even existed in this world for more than 8 minutes according to Earth lifetime. However, our kind has made amazing discoveries and inventions in this short period.
What we need to do right now is to keep reminding ourselves of our capabilities.
After that, we should work collaboratively with each other without thinking of political profits. Covid-19 is a good reminder of how capitalism has its limits. Thus, our priority should be to embrace nature and be respectful of it.
We are just the players of the game that is ruled by the earth. If we try to win the game by imposing our system, we’ll eventually lose. Hence, we have to lose the game to live. Maybe Covid-19 is one of the matches between humankind and mother nature. What do you think?
Bersun KILINÇ
Featured image courtesy of @Tumisu via Pixabay.