‘Manage your anxiety’ to cope during lockdown- Dr June M. Samuel
But according to Dr Samuel, it is important that persons manage their anxiety, especially during the 24-hour lockdown currently being observed until Thursday, April 2, 2020.
“If you are not feeling anxious or concerned I would be surprised,” Dr Samuel said, adding that persons are expected to have a certain level of anxiety since the information being shared about what is taking place in other countries affected by Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is mostly negative.
“Those negative pictures are what is driving our fears,” Dr Samuel said on Umoja, hosted by Mr Cromwell Smith aka ‘Edju En Ka’ on ZBVI 780 AM and livestreamed on Facebook on Thursday, March 26, 2020.
The discussion was about coping during the coronavirus curfew.
Get the facts
One of the things to manage anxiety, according to Dr Samuel, is to look for the correct information.
“And the facts of the situation is that with this virus 80 percent of the people who get the virus do well, they recover and go back to work,” Dr Samuel said, adding that China-where the virus outbreak occurred- has reopened and the people have gone back to work.
She said a small percentage of the people infected died and those were mostly at-risk persons.
Mr Smith then interjected that the focus of the information coming out from public officials is on the number of infections and death rate but he has been encouraging Health Ministry officials to speak more about the recovery rate “in an attempt to reduce some of the fears that stigma continues to generate.”
Dr Samuel then continued that another strategy to manage anxiety is to be cooperative with the contact tracing and the surveillance that are being done.
“Because by doing that you are basically protecting the community, and remember that the protection is for the people around us who are vulnerable.”
‘Occupy your mind’
She also said there is a need to have structure for those in the household during the lockdown.
“You have to occupy your mind.”
Dr Samuel advised that now is also a good time for persons to practice and fall back on their faith.
Advocating for prayer and meditation, Dr Samuel said “because the thing we are experiencing right now is worry, worrying thoughts. Is this person I am standing next to have the virus and am I going to catch it from them? What is going to happen in the next three months? Do we have enough food in the country? So it is all worrying thoughts, persons employment would have been up in the air so there are going to be financial worries.”
Prayer & meditation
She said prayer and meditation can help with that, “because meditation can help you to focus your thoughts in a positive way.
“A lot of anxiety and worry comes from the thoughts we are having so if we can manage our thoughts then we can decrease the level of stress and anxiety.”
Persons were also encouraged to stay in touch with family and friends as against isolating themselves.
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10 Responses to “‘Manage your anxiety’ to cope during lockdown- Dr June M. Samuel”
Weeks now since we were told that they were awaiting test results and as yet nothing said. Waiting for weeks for results in and of itself is craziness. And those that were diagnosed we have no update on their condition good or bad. And the general belief, as a result, is that there are more than those two confirmed cases.