Fear of corona

I'm so sorry that the current developments make you feel so anxious! It is very understandable that these new situations and drastic changes cause stress. The emotions you experience and the doubts you have are normal. I would like to briefly explain something to you about stress and give you some tips.

If you look at stress, it is a hormonal reaction to a certain situation. Stress makes you alert and vigilant. You take into account unpredictable dangers because you lack a certain control over a situation. For example, someone who is afraid of dogs will be alert when hearing barks, because they have no control over whether that dog might bite or not. So the following happens: uncertainty and the lack of certain control lead to -> fear -> assuming the worst -> caution & more stress. To deal with this, you can do a few things:

• Try to do enough relaxing things to maintain a healthy daily balance. For example, maintain a good lifestyle by exercising enough, taking care of your sleep or eating healthy.
• Limit yourself to a healthy amount of news. News is mostly negative because it attracts more attention from readers/viewers. Every time you look up the news, it triggers a small stress response. So set limits for yourself to read news for a maximum of half an hour, for example.
• Be critical of what you read. The internet is full of information, but also misinformation. Much misinformation is based on ill-founded theories that people are quick to adopt because it matches their feeling of fear.
• Try to read reliable and scientifically based sources.
• Try to control your fearful feeling. For example, ask yourself questions such as: “would I think differently if I felt differently?”, or “what is the reason I feel anxious? Is there an actual threat or lack of control that makes me anxious?", or "am I thinking of a worst-case scenario or could there be another possible scenario?".

If you notice that the fear is starting to hinder you in daily life, or you notice that you get intensive sleeping problems, don't feel hesitant to visit your doctor and ask for mental support! Here you will find more information about how to start an online treatment via NiceDay.