During the months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have observed different emotional moments in people. At the first moment when the decision was made to confine us for fifteen days, fear appeared. Fear was the emotion that first moved us, because people were afraid of not having enough food and that caused a series of behaviors to appear. They were afraid of not being able to stay at home during those fifteen days without being able to go out and that generated anxiety problems.
However, there were many people who were able to enjoy that moment. This part of the population was positively affected, because they found much more time to dedicate to themselves.
Many people practiced mindfulness, a tool that helps us to enjoy the present moment in the here and now. This technique allowed these people to introspect, to realize the really important things (hugs, kisses, caresses…) and to come out of this situation stronger.
Evolution of the emotional state
At the beginning we saw how the pandemic was affecting us positively: we were able to do many things, but as time went by and we saw that this was going to last for a long time, people became discouraged. We began to have problems of concentration and problems of sadness and anxiety, especially anguish, nervousness and stress.
With the deconfinement we saw an increase in anxiety disorders, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorders (fear of contagion, fear of disease…). On the other hand, by giving the opportunity to be able to go out, disorders related to agoraphobia or those related to social contact also increased, because we had to keep our distance to avoid health contagion.
Children: how they have been affected
When we started to talk about new normality and tried to go about our lives little by little, we realized that we couldn’t do the things we did before. We had to wear the mask, we had to keep our distance and then there was also an impact on the population. The most affected at the beginning were the children, because they had to go back to school. They had experienced the confinement better than us, they were with their family, with their parents, they felt protected and they played, even though they missed their friends. But it is also true that in terms of mental health, they have a greater capacity to adapt to change. They were affected by this adaptation to change when they returned to school, when they went from having online classes to face-to-face classes, but with all the security measures mentioned above.
How it has affected adults
With regard to adults, panic attacks were the reason for the first consultations. Ninety-five percent of the first consultations we received were panic attacks, anxiety attacks and disorders related to this state of mind.
Even so, people have been adapting and coming back to that reality. And both children and adults have been lowering that degree of anxiety.
At the moment when this second wave returns again, we have gone from that anxiety and stress to find ourselves in a state of apathy, discouragement and sadness, because it is a long time without hugging, caressing, kissing or seeing the people you love, without doing activities we used to do that made us feel good… And that has affected our way of relating, because affection is required with contact and contact generates oxytocin. And at this moment we are quite needy of affection and oxytocin for others, which is leading us to this sadness.
Keys to protect ourselves in the face of what we are experiencing
To come out stronger, we need to follow a series of guidelines:
- Introspection, to know ourselves, to see what our strengths and weaknesses are.
- Being compassionate with ourselves, allowing ourselves to fall as many times as necessary.
- Take care of ourselves: take care of our diet, do physical exercise.
- Take the time to do activities that we like, that make us feel good.
And from all this, to relate with the people we are closest to, those we can touch, to nourish ourselves with that affection and love. And to give affection to others in a compassionate way, to understand others. That everything we are doing is for the good of the people in our society and that we will come out of this situation much stronger if we understand that we are not alone, that we are together. From that moment on, sense of humor, optimism and social support are the main resilience variables to come out stronger.