THE EMOTIONAL EFFECTS
OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
J.C MEEROFF MD,
PhD Clinical Associate
Prof of Medicine, FAU
SUSANA
MEEROFF Director
of Health Services and Administration,
South Florida Institute of Integrative Medicine
"Man seems to insist on ignoring the lessons available from history…One
of the greatest threats to mankind today is that the world may be choked by an
explosively pervading but well
camouflaged bureaucracy." Norman Borlaug
“The world is ill-prepared to respond to a severe influenza pandemic or
to any similarly global, sustained and threatening public-health emergency” World
Health Organization statement.
“Adopting the right attitude can convert negative stress into a positive
on” Hans Seyle
“The important thing about a
problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution” Seneca the Younger
“Without effort and willingness to experience pain and anxiety, nobody
grows, in fact nobody achieves anything worth achieving.” Erich Fromm
INTRODUCTION
Despite popular belief, the current COVID-19 pandemic was neither
unpredictable, nor unprecedented. In the last decade, scientist all over the
world alerted that a serious pandemic will occur but neither the political
leaders nor the general population payed much attention to those warnings.
At this moment, it is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has
magnified the serious medical, educational, psychosocial and economic difficulties
our contemporary society was confronting in recent times.
During the last century many outstanding health problems have been deciphered
to a point that most humans now adhere to the concept that all medical challenges
have been already solved by science and technology. In the late 1970s Prof Joel
Valencia Parparcen, then President of the World Gastroenterology Organisation
(WGO) said emphatically: “Medicine has evolved so much to decrease mortality,
eliminate epidemics, prolong life, safely allow agglomerations, eradicate fear
of death and erase pain”. Unfortunately, reality is not in agreement with those
statements since there are still too many medical problems to unravel.
Today global population is far beyond the upper limit
of sustainability; sanitation and hygiene are still very substandard worldwide;
education is deficient in most of the globe; poverty is universally rampant; the
environment is not just unprotected but rather seriously damaged and we do not
have adequate treatments for many chronic diseases.
We argue that, among other important socio-cultural issues, the contemporary
world is characterized by a disbelief in the moral of the classic fable known
as “Three Little Pigs”, a fable that demonstrate the value of hard work and
perseverance. As Oliver Tearle said “ Self-sufficiency,
thinking, plucky resourcefulness and careful planning pay off, and help to
protect us from harm”.
At the present time, we are living in a global community where effort,
hard work, talent, merit and perseverance are rejected by many; where pleasure,
instant gratification and hedonism prevail over sacrifice, restrain and obligation,
where the sense of purpose and/or direction is confusing, where it is not
necessary to take responsibility for our acts since the belief is that somebody
else will do it for us (privileges over duties), where quantity is more significant
than quality, where who is the person is more important than what the person
says, where following moral and ethical principles is not consider worthy.
The well-liked pop artist Cesar Honorio “Banana” Pueyrredon popularized
the concept of laziness and passivity in his 1969 famous song “Facundo has
arrived to the world” (Facundo ha llegado al mundo): … “Facundo, so little,
doesn’t have any problems…eats, play, sleep, and laugh all day long, why don’t
we do like him..”
Following those notions most of humanity didn’t spend much time learning
the lessons from the contemporary virulent epidemics/pandemics (Spanish Flu,
polio, HIV, Ebola, Chagas, Malaria, etc.). As a result, humanity is not prepared
to confront a sudden and capricious event like the current COVID-19 pandemic. Humans are inefficiently equipped and
poorly supported to cope with strong imposed demands (stress). Today the consequence
is a devastating series of events leading to serious distress requiring a
valiant, firm and positive attitude to overcome the threat.
THE MENTAL HEALTH PANDEMIC
Millions of people are suffering emotionally because of the coronavirus
pandemic. A 2020 CDC survey found that the prevalence of anxiety and
depression symptoms were substantially higher than those reported in 2019, and
people with preexisting psychiatric disorders reported an even higher
prevalence of symptoms, compared with those without an established diagnosis.
We argue that those emotional responses are directly linked to the inability of
most of humanity to understand the need for self-responsibility and actively
seeking for solutions to the problems.
A
simple review of patient’s medical histories in our Clinic revealed that since
the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak distress has caused the following
emotional/ mental problems (the list may be incomplete):
ü
Fear and worry about health, feelings of isolation
ü
Easy exhaustion, headaches, dizziness
ü
Worry about financial situation or job
ü
Negativity in the working environment
ü
Increased irritable bowel syndrome symptoms
ü
Changes in sleep and/or eating patterns
ü
Difficulty in concentration
ü
Impairment of logic thinking and reasoning
ü
Decreased intellectual and/or physical performances
ü
Believing in conspiracy and mistrusting medicine
ü
Worsening of chronic health problems.
ü
Redoubled aggressiveness, abuse and disrespect (bullying)
ü
Worsening of mental health conditions
ü
Proliferation of soft tissue injuries (muscle spasms, sprains, strains,
etc.)
ü
Increased abuse of alcohol, tobacco and/or recreational drugs
ü
Excessive ingestion of empty calories
ü
Phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behavior
ü
Developing psychotic signs and/or symptoms
ü
Enhanced suicidal thinking
Certainly, this is a long list of syndromes, signs and symptoms we can’t
ignore and/or take lightly.
Healthy
ways to cope with THE COVID-19 MENTAL PANDEMIC
Definitively, mental/emotional issues related to COVID-19 are here to
stay, and we must tackle them before they produce a tsunami. There are many actions
individuals can implement to protect themselves against the psychological
effects of COVID-19. Actions to be taken include:
1 Learning as much as possible about COVID-19
- Knowing what
to do if infected.
- Knowing
where and how to get treatment and other support services and
resources, including counseling or therapy (in person or through telemedicine
services).
2 Taking
care of the emotional wellbeing
- Working,
reading, studying either on location or from home using recommended
protocols and react to the urgent need to protect yourself and your family.
- Taking
breaks from watching, reading and/or listening news stories, including those on
social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be distressing.
3 Not abusing the use of prescribed and /or OTC remedies
such as PPIs, muscle relaxants, sleep aids, vitamins, enzymes, etc.
4 Looking after the body
- Eating healthy, exercising
regularly with moderation, and sleeping well.
- Making
time to unwind. Trying to do some activities you enjoy
- Spending
time outdoors when possible
- Practicing
relaxation techniques and other alternative therapies such as Reiki, yoga,
metamorphic technique, crystal healing etc.
5 Maintaining social connectivity
- Talking
with trusting people about concerns and feelings.
- Connecting
with support groups or faith-based organizations. While social
distancing measures are in place, consider connecting online, through
social media, or by phone or e-mail.
6 Remembering the past and planning ahead
If those actions are insufficient, patients should not
hesitate to seek psychological assistance as soon as possible.
SELECTED REFERENCES
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Ehrlich,P et
al (1977). Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and
Environment. San
Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1977.
Gale SD, Berrett AN, Erickson LD, et al. Association between virus
exposure and depression in US adults. Psychiatry Res. 2018; 261:73-79.
Gore A. An inconvenient truth: the Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. (2006) Rodale Inc Pennsylvania USA
Halliwell Phillips JO (1886). The Nursery rhymes of England. F. Warne & Co , London pp. 37–41
Jaiswal J, Halkitis PN. Towards a more inclusive and dynamic understanding of medical mistrust informed by science. Behav Med. 2019; 45:79-85.
Malthus TR (1798) An Essay on the Principle of Population. J. Johnson, London
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Putman, Angela. (2019). Discursive constructions of racism and white privilege in a U.S. pilot seminar. Whiteness and Education. 5. 1-17. 10.1080/23793406.2019.1682465.
Shukendu B (2015) Unsolved problems in biology. The state of current
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Tearle O (2020) A Summary and Analysis of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ Fairy Tale –
Interesting Literature. A Summary and Analysis of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ Fairy Tale Interesting
Literature, Co
Tellmann U (2013) Catastrophic Populations and the Fear of the Future: Malthus and the Genealogy of Liberal Economy. Theory, Cult & Soc 30: 135-155
Valencia-Parparcen J. (1981). La medicina en el miundo dominante y en el mundo dominado. Ed Lerner Ltd.
Bogota, Colombia
.
Copyright 2020 © JCMeeroff, MD,
PhD. All rights reserved.
MEEROFF JC & MEEROFF S (2020). Emotional impact of
COVID-19. https://www.meeroffmedicine.com/articles/ The emotional
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
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