Corona Panic: 4 Tips to Combat Anxiety

Are similar thoughts panicking you right now? Your sympathetic nervous system – the part of your autonomic nervous system responsible for your fight-or-flight instinct – is constantly sounding the alarm. Your heart rate increases, your blood pressure rises, and you may develop sweaty hands or a clenched neck. This bodily reaction made sense in prehistoric times. The instinct to survive drove our ancestors to perform at their best to run away from or fight off the often-cited sabre-toothed tiger.

We, on the other hand, can't even face our sabre-toothed tiger face-to-face – at least not without a microscope. Nor can we – lockdown or otherwise – run away from the tiny intruder. Aside from washing your hands, keeping a distance of 1.5 m at the supermarket checkout, and staying home as much as possible, we currently have little power over the probably smallest sabre-toothed tiger that has the whole world on edge.

Fear conquers more people than anything else in the world. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

And yet, there is something we can do. Just as our ancestors retreated to the safety of their cave after an exciting confrontation with the predator, we can create a refuge for ourselves. By this, I mean not a physical home – because you may already feel like the walls are closing in on you there – but one within us. Since we have no direct control over our autonomic nervous system and even less over the COVID-19 crisis, it's all the more important to focus on the things we can control. This includes our thoughts, for example. Even though it isn't always easy, we can equip our mental cave with more positive thoughts to give fear less room. 

Below, I have researched four scientifically sound strategies for you – and myself – on how to stay as calm as possible during the COVID-19 panic.

1. Panic versus Reason

To explain how panic differs from reason, let's take a relatively simple example that is currently the subject of many jokes: If everyone else is buying toilet paper like crazy, then I must also stock up before everything is sold out. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? 

Anxious thoughts are masters of disguise: they manage to pass themselves off as the voice of reason. This is because we are accustomed to trusting our thoughts, which are usually rational in nature. When emotions take control, we don't immediately recognise that someone else is now at the wheel. [1] [1] How emotions guide your thoughts: Psychology Today (2016) The Power of Emotions to Override Rational Thought  But upon closer inspection, we can expose the impostor. True reason is characterised, for example, by the search for evidence and by questioning preliminary conclusions: 

Are the others really buying like "crazy people," or did someone perhaps just buy an extra pack per household? How much toilet paper is probably still in the large central warehouses of the supermarkets? Did people perhaps panic-buy a few extra rolls at first, but have now calmed down?

The voice of panic also speaks in black-and-white terms, while the voice of reason can view things with nuance. Surely not everyone else has now stockpiled toilet paper for the next 25 years. And people are not buying like crazy people, but only a little more than usual – after all, they are now spending more time at home.

Now you have an idea of how you can expose anxious thoughts: on the one hand, by asking critical questions, and on the other, by recognising black-and-white thinking. But it isn't so easy to recognise and dismiss these negative thoughts right away. An excellent way to train yourself to become the mindful air traffic controller of your psyche is meditation.

Man: a rational being that loses its composure whenever it is required to act according to the laws of reason. – Oscar Wilde

2. Taming the Tiger with Meditation

When we think of meditation, we see ourselves sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat with our eyes closed, paying attention to our breath while a singing bowl sounds from somewhere. But what exactly does meditation actually do to our thoughts, besides supposedly making us calmer and more relaxed? Let's play a little game:

If a life-sized, 400 kg predator with razor-sharp teeth and claws suddenly stood before you, your nervous system would go through the roof, as described above. Adrenaline would rush through your body, and you would decide in a split second whether to fight or flee. When you imagine the worst-case scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic, you conjure up this sabre-toothed tiger within yourself. The tiger is not standing before you; it is raging in your head. 

 We suffer more in imagination than in reality. – Seneca

In the meditation app by 7Mind, you will find special courses to keep the tiger out of your inner cave and thus maintain a fear-free refuge for yourself.

Through meditation, you also learn to recognise the predator for what it is: a product of your own imagination. This doesn't mean the coronavirus isn't dangerous. But the primal human fight-or-flight strategy won't help you in this case. [2] [2]  A look into the future: Matthias Horx (2020) The World After Corona   What you need is inner peace and, above all, a clear head—without a sabre-toothed tiger inside.

3. App Blockers Against Viral Fearmongering 

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 sabre-toothed tiger is a tireless hunter that keeps ambushing you. Its primary hunting grounds are televisions and smartphones. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the media had already made fear a best-seller. Today, not only the pathogen spreads virally, but breaking news and terrifying reports also spread across the entire globe like wildfire. Limit your media consumption so that the modern tiger doesn't make a home in your inner cave. 

On the one hand, you can reduce your information channels to a few trustworthy sources and thus build immunity against the dangerous myths and half-truths in your Facebook feed. Here, long-form formats are also ideal for viewing black-and-white headlines with a little more nuance. Watch a 30-minute documentary instead of five short video clips on Facebook. 

On the other hand, app blockers help you set fixed times for your media consumption. You could, for example, set a time slot from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. during which you inform yourself about the state of the world. Afterwards, your nervous system will still have enough time to recover from the confrontation with the tiger, and your bedroom will transform back from the prehistoric steppe into the modern version of the home cave.

With the Offtime app and with Self-Control, you can block all apps that disturb your peace. If you use Facebook for professional networking in groups and messages, Kill News Feed will at least cut down the flood of COVID-19 posts. Or replace your Facebook feed with an inspiring quote thanks to Eradicator. 

You can find our favourites list of the best app blockers to protect your mental health here.

4. Gratitude and Community Spirit

“Those who are grateful can consciously enjoy positive feelings more and experience fewer negative feelings such as anger, guilt, sadness, fear, envy, or worry in the long term. Those who are grateful can cope more easily with burdens and stress and also sleep better. [3] [3] Unique and long-term effects of gratitude Emmons, R., McCullough, M. (2003): Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subject Well-Being in Daily Life  Those who are grateful behave more helpfully and strengthen their social bonds in this way.” [4] [4] Excerpt from the 6-Minute-Diary: Dominik Spenst Your Gratitude

Ultimately, gratitude even reduces the fear of death.  [5] [5] Gratitude interventions in breast cancer patients: Otto et al. (2016) Effects of a randomized gratitude intervention on death-related fear of recurrence in breast cancer survivors. 

Read also: “How gratitude changes your brain”

If you think of all the wonderful gifts in your life, it would be an almost impossible mental feat to simultaneously have negative and fear-inducing thoughts. If you fill your head with positive thoughts, there will be no more room for the sabre-toothed tiger. Furthermore, gratitude is wonderful to pass on to others. Because, as the German philosopher Albert Schweitzer said 150 years ago: “Happiness is the only thing that doubles when you share it.”

And that is exactly what you should do! Be grateful for all the people who are close to you and show them that too. Although the demand for “social distancing” means keeping your physical distance, thanks to the digital revolution, we can revive our community spirit in this unprecedented crisis. Whether by phone, Skype, or a tin-can telephone: Now is an excellent time to call Grandma and Grandpa or reconnect with your old school clique. Instead of going to anonymous parties, you can enjoy the renaissance of intimate one-on-one meetings. Don't drive across town to your friends on public transport, but stay on the balcony and arrange an after-work beer with your neighbour. Let's isolate the virus – but still stay close.

Strengthening thoughts against COVID-19 panic

It is completely normal to be afraid in times of uncertainty and crisis. It is also completely normal to sometimes slip into panic. But the best thing you can do now for yourself and your fellow human beings is to practise gratitude, mindfulness and self-love—now more than ever! Banish the sabre-toothed tiger from your inner cave. After all, we already have enough to deal with with the COVID-19 crisis – we don't need a predator in our heads too. 

Did this article help you? Then feel free to share it with your loved ones so that we can stay strong together!

____________________

This post is by Amelie Haupt. Thanks to her studies in business psychology, she is the “Psycho-Aunt” of the 6-Minuten-Verlag. She likes her texts, like her life: structured. She needs it too when she's out and about as a digital nomad again.

Sources:

[1] How emotions guide your thoughts: Psychology Today (2016) The Power of Emotions to Override Rational Thought

[2] What will the world look like after COVID-19? Matthias Horx (2020) The World After Corona

[3] Unique and long-term effects of gratitude Emmons, R., McCullough, M. (2003): Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subject Well-Being in Daily Life

[4] Excerpt from the 6-Minute-Diary: Dominik Spenst Your Gratitude

[5] Gratitude interventions in breast cancer patients: Otto et al. (2016) Effects of a randomized gratitude intervention on death-related fear of recurrence in breast cancer survivors.