For many years I have been dealing with psychological crises, both in practical, scientific and didactic aspects. The current situation we are facing in our country is related to the environmental crisis that we are all experiencing. In connection with this, I have prepared some important and practical information that may be useful to you. It will help you understand what reactions may occur in you or your loved ones from the psychological side, what they result from and how to deal with them.
What is a psychological crisis and are we currently dealing with one?
A psychological crisis is defined as a healthy person’s reaction to difficult, crisis-related life events. That is, situations that, in the subjective assessment of a given person, exceed their ability to cope, are often surprising, new, large and overwhelming. Facing a crisis situation entails consequences in the form of a temporary deterioration in functioning. This state passes with gradual coping with the tension and difficulty that caused the crisis.
However, if no constructive action is taken, the crisis may deepen and may constitute the basis for the development of more serious psychological disorders. At the same time, the experience of a psychological crisis may become a chance to make a positive breakthrough in life, because crises often force certain changes that, in retrospect, may be assessed as positive and necessary. This is a brief description of the phenomenon of a psychological crisis.
The important question is: are we currently dealing with a psychological crisis?
The answer is yes. The current situation in the country related to the epidemic threat can be classified as so-called environmental crises. These are crises that affect a larger group of people (currently, this applies to each of us) at the same time and are related to the action of an external factor, often of a random nature. Of course, in the current situation, it is not only about the fear of coronavirus infection.
Concerns about the consequences of the restrictions we are subject to are also becoming important. For some people, these will be professional and financial consequences, for others, loneliness resulting from quarantine, for still others, it will be facing their own illness or that of their loved ones and ultimately death. In addition, there are many unknowns to which none of us knows the answer: how long this situation will last and what changes will ultimately entail.
Does the fact that we as a society are facing an environmental crisis mean that each of us will experience a psychological crisis?
This only means that the current situation (environmental crisis) can potentially lead to the experience of a psychological crisis in some people in our society. Currently, each of us is facing this situation, but reactions to it can be very different. Some people may experience negligible psychological consequences, others may react with severe stress, still others with a crisis (from mild to deep), and still others will think that it is a challenge that simply must be faced.
What determines how you react?
How we react to difficult, crisis situations depends on several factors. One of the most important is the way you interpret the crisis event, what your attitude is towards it, what beliefs accompany it. In psychological language, we talk about cognitive evaluation of the critical event. This evaluation influences the emotions that appear in you and the decisions and actions you take and the way you behave.
You are probably wondering what this cognitive assessment depends on. First of all, on what resources you have to cope with a crisis situation. If in your assessment you do not have the resources to cope, your assessment will be negative, and if you have the resources, you will think “it’s not that bad, I can cope”. Among the resources that may prove useful are undoubtedly the support of loved ones, having savings, a job that can be continued, access to health care, your self-awareness, the ability to cope with your own emotions or developed strategies for coping with stress, etc.
The last factor is your internal resources and personality predispositions that can support your psychological resilience. Here, what is important is how much you feel supported in yourself and how strong your sense of self-agency is.
To sum up, the compilation of these three factors: the assessment/interpretation you give to a crisis event, what resources you have to cope with it, and how psychologically resilient you are (what your internal resources are) has a significant impact on your reaction to the crisis. You can react in such a way that you treat it as a challenge to overcome, you can react with tension and stress, you can also react with a crisis (mild, medium or deep).
How do you know if your reaction is a crisis, what symptoms might you experience?
In order for us to talk about experiencing an emotional crisis, in addition to meeting the first condition, i.e. the occurrence of a critical event – in this case we have this condition met, because we are facing an environmental crisis – it is also important to what extent the crisis event affected your psychophysical functioning, i.e. to what extent it violated your “normal” (typical for you) functioning.
First , the most typical symptom that can appear as a natural reaction to a crisis situation is the feeling of increased anxiety and fear. Fear is the most characteristic emotion of a crisis and completely natural to it – later in the text I refer to how to deal with fear. In addition to fear itself, other emotions may also come to the fore, such as anger, frustration, sadness or helplessness, felt with a slightly greater intensity than usual and less subject to your control.
Secondly , there may be problems with sleep or appetite. These are signals coming directly from our body, which respond to what is happening at the level of the psyche. If our psyche is out of balance, then the body also gets out of homeostasis.
Thirdly , you may experience difficulty concentrating, difficulty making decisions, planning, or recurring thoughts about the crisis situation that are difficult to control. This often manifests itself in racing thoughts, most often at night, or difficulty concentrating on something else because thoughts related to the crisis situation are constantly being replayed in your head.
The appearance of such symptoms can be considered a mild emotional crisis, which is a natural reaction to the problem you are dealing with (environmental crisis). You have every right to react like this, your psyche and your body are coping in this way with the novelty you have been suddenly and unexpectedly faced with.
How to deal with fear of coronavirus and fear of the consequences of the current situation in the country?
As I mentioned, anxiety/fear is a natural and correct reaction to situations, because if we are facing a real threat, danger or we only anticipate it, this is the emotion that should appear in us. The basic function of the emotion of anxiety and fear is to warn us when some threat (real or anticipated) appears. After all, if we did not start to feel anxiety and fear, we probably would not take any action to prepare/protect ourselves from current events. Therefore, these emotions are our allies and are to support us in starting action.
Instead of fighting your fear (or ignoring it), accept it. Recognize that it is inside you. Name it. Say out loud “I am afraid”, “I feel fear” and share your fears with someone close to you, talk about it, allow yourself to vent your emotions. If there is a lot of anger and frustration alongside the fear, because these emotions can also appear, then let them come out (of course in a way that is safe for you and others). The worst thing you can do to yourself is to suppress these emotions. Emotions appear in us because they are supposed to convey certain information, if they fulfill their function and reduce their intensity or disappear.
Fear carries a message: prepare yourself, protect yourself, increase your vigilance.
It may be helpful to understand fear by breaking it down into two components. Fear as a combination of UNCERTAINTY, related to lack of knowledge, information, facing a new situation, and HELPLESSNESS, or the feeling that I am unable to do anything in this situation. When we add to this the message coming from fear – prepare yourself – we have a full picture of how important a role fear plays in difficult and crisis situations.
I wanted to offer you a technique for relieving anxiety that affects the way you think and triggers action.
Begin by answering the question: What exactly causes your anxiety?
This is an important stage, because it requires confronting the emotion and letting it in. Naming the emotion directly, e.g. I am afraid, I feel anxiety – already brings some relief, I will add to this what it is directed at, i.e. what I am really afraid of – and we start the path towards solutions.
Now answer one of the following questions:
“What I’m most afraid of is that, …………………. (describe what you’re afraid of)”
“As for …………………. I’m afraid that, …………………..”
Then you can ask yourself 6 additional questions related to this fear:
- When I start to feel this fear I do the following things……………….
- When I feel this fear my body feels………….
- If I were to experimentally imagine that what I fear most had happened, what could I do in such a situation …………………….. (Come up with several scenarios of actions/solutions that could be undertaken by you)
- If I were free from this fear, I would be doing the following in my life right now…
Next, draw four columns on a blank piece of paper, like this:
| What I don’t know | What I know | What I have no influence on | What do I have influence on? |
|
|
Label the first column “what I don’t know”, label the second column “what I know”.
Fear is caused by uncertainty – lack of knowledge, information, facing a new situation. So it is completely natural to ask what you don’t know, what information you lack and then where you can get this information, how you can get used to the new situation you find yourself in. Describe it.
Describe the third column as “what I have no influence over” and the fourth column as “what I can influence”.
Fear is also caused by helplessness – that is, the feeling that I can’t do anything, so it is important to ask yourself what is within your reach, what you can do, what is the scope of actions that are on your side – in this way you regain a sense of agency, which is most often taken away by fear.
Without a doubt, you have an influence on how you react to events – you can change your reaction to be more constructive at any time; you have an influence on how you take care of yourself (whether you will follow the rules that we are asked to follow as a society); you also have an influence on how you will do what in the time that is at your disposal. These are just a few suggestions. Then, redirect all your activity to those activities that you can influence, and simply accept those that you cannot influence and stop wasting your precious energy on them.
Finally, you can imagine a positive scenario, that is, how you would cope with the situation you fear. Imagine this situation until the end, how you cope until the moment of resolution. This task can make you realize how much you actually know and how many things you have influence on.
What else can you do to help yourself cope with a crisis?
What is extremely important in dealing with crisis situations is to take care of natural support. So be with your loved ones, talk to them, spend time, be a support for them and draw support from them for yourself.
It is equally important to take care of your mental resilience, which will translate into physical resilience. Since the topic of self-care is very broad and at the same time very important, I invite you to a free webinar, where I will discuss how you can currently strengthen your psychological resilience, so that you have support in yourself. I invite everyone to the webinar, you do not have to register anywhere in advance. Save the date and time in your calendar now.