by Connie Shannon and Niseema Dyan Diemer LMT, SEP
The dilemma of how to deal with going back out into society, work and school while the pandemic is still in our midst can feed into other phobias, creating more anxiety.
Here are 5 common ways of handling anxiety/fear and how they relate to COVID:
1. Extreme caution. Since Day 1, wearing gloves and masks in the house, no outside interaction, sterilizing all packages, vigilent hand washing. Fear of contaminating the space around the home, possibly infecting others.
2. Mild caution. Mask on, frequent hand washing, sanitizing. There is some engagement with people but very few, only from a "safe distance" and then very briefly. Maybe you find yourself anxious or angry about others not taking as much care as you.
3. Average caution. Following all the guidelines (masks, washing, santizing) plus a bit more social interaction. Maintaining the protocols while social distancing, less fearful of controlled situations. Not overly anxious, "I know this will end!"
4. Minimizing seriousness. Forgets to wear/bring a mask, doesn't think of the virus, the threat or tunes out facts. Seems to have a "whatever" attitude. There is still fear but it is being pushed away.
5. Reckless denial. Going out with no mask, gathering in large groups with no social distancing, making fun of people who are cautious. Fighting fear by "fighting back".
None of these are wrong. The individual response of each person is normal for them. If you feel your response is inhibiting you from moving back into your life then you can reach out for help and/or try the exercise below. We can learn new ways of coping, seeing through and developing the capacity to face our fears.
Often the first step in Exposure Therapy, which is often used for Phobias, is to just imagine the situation, object, quality that you fear as if you are looking through binoculars backwards, making it feel small and far away.
1. Notice what the response is in your body when you do this.
2. Notice that you can become aware of the ground and your breath and that right here, right now you are safe.
3. Stay with this until you feel your body return to or find a place of relaxation and ease.
You can try this several times until this 'dose' of the fear no longer causes anxiety or tension in your body. You would then bring the fear a little closer and go through the steps again.
Eventually you will be able to move into relationship directly with the fear, in this case maybe you go from being a person who is practicing Extreme Caution to someone who feels safe practicing Average Caution. And know there is always insight to gain with each step!
Listen to our podcast, The Positive Mind, linked below, about this topic and more.
"Being brave isn't the absence of fear.
Being brave is having that fear and finding a way through it."
Bear Grylls, British SAS serviceman/Man vs. Wild television producer