Dinonyane on career, improving mental health and managing coronavirus anxiety (Part 2)
Dr Betsho Mokgatlhe-Dinonyane has noticed something, that while pandemics affect societies in different ways, most often battle with fear. She fields questions from SunHealth.
#How do pandemics in general affect our mental health?
Pandemics affect societies or countries differently. HIV and AIDS affected us in a similar way to what Covid has. The striking similarity is between HIV and Covid is that everyone is affected, and not only some people. But the general feeling that comes with a pandemic at the top of the list is fear. Fear of not being able to properly protect yourself, fear of the evolution of what has caused the said pandemic. Something else I’ve noted is the pattern of stigmatization and judgement. Where people who have COVID-19 or individuals who had HIV are treated in a certain type of way.
Some ask questions like, "what did this person do to contract this?", "this person was probably not being careful!" among others. And that treatment doesn’t happen always out of ignorance but for the most part it goes back to the issue of fear. There are also a lot of people who are in survival mode where there’s a lot of greed and emotional distancing.
# How can one cope with the stress and anxiety they are experiencing because of the pandemic?
This question is a bit difficult for me because there is a rainbow of the types of stress that exist and the types of anxiety that exist. This is to say that different elements of the pandemic affect people. For instance, stress comes about for some because they are struggling with the limitation on social interaction. It is a great deal that these type of people continue to practice social distancing and continue reducing the amount of times of the interact with multiple groups of people. What I would suggest is that people try find new ways to pass time. People should also not fear spending time by themselves out of fear of thinking too much about the things that make them uncomfortable.
A common anxiety that I’m seeing is the fear of getting COVID-19. For those that are struggling with this my suggestion would be to focus on what it is that you can control about the pandemic. This includes good hygiene and social distancing, staying home as much as you can and working from home as much as you can. I’d like for people to also be cognizant of the fact that they are somethings about a pandemic that you cannot control. This is the decisions that other people make in terms of their level of compliance to regulations, for example, whether they put their masks on correctly. Also understanding that there is a likelihood of you as an individual getting COVID-19. I’d like to discourage people from thinking about worst-case scenario and rather focusing more on the fact that
people have recovered. In addition, it is important to put your energy more on things that make you feel empowered as opposed to this giant fear of this virus that you cannot see.
# For those already living with an anxiety disorder, anything, particularly media coverage can be especially triggering. What would be the best coping mechanism for them?
I am really hoping that people who have anxiety disorders are receiving the right kind of attention in order to maintain good levels of functioning.
I am a big advocate for cell phone hygiene this means keeping certain media out of reach. It can include blocking certain people from talking to you because you have seen that the spam you with COVID-19 updates some may be sharing incorrect information as well. It means muting certain groups that put a lot of attention and emphasis on giving these updates. It really means getting some form of control over what you choose to expose yourself to. So I would recommend leaving certain avenues open in order to remain in the loop of the evolution of what is happening in terms of COVID-19 as well as the country in general. This would mean keeping avenues open to accessing information that is released by the government and being selective about how much information you can personally handle from watching the news on TV.
# How can one offer emotional support to friends, family members, or coworkers who have been quarantined?
You can send gifts, something as simple as a bottle of water, a bouquet of flowers if that is allowed. Quarantine can definitely feel like solitary confinement. Mind you solitary confinement is a technique used by prisons to punish individuals to the maximum capacity that they can. A lot of people that come out of solitary confinement in prisons come out having shifted mentally most of the time this shift is not in a positive manner.
So keep in contact with these people because remember that they are in there for multiple hours with very little resources to keep themselves busy with. Video call as often as you can. If possible video call during meal times where you as the caller are also having your meal times so that they don’t feel that every single experience that they had outside of quarantine is non-existent.
I would like to also request that people add as much humor into this experience as possible. That may sound absurd but our bodies respond very well to something as simple as a laughter. There is something called laughter therapy and