Despite that many people expected 2020 to be a year full of success and blessings as it is the first year of a new decade, it seems like this year went in a whole other direction and not only for certain individuals but almost for every single person on the planet.
The new coronavirus that first appeared in China at the end of the last year has tremendously changed people’s lives and even the world in general. Borders have been closed, many people have lost their lives, others have lost their jobs and the health workers from all around the world are fighting perhaps the biggest war of their lives.
In other words, we are living in times like we could not have even imagined just a few months ago. We spent our days locked at our homes, reading and hearing about the same thing over and over again. However, although we might be safe at home from COVID 19, there is one thing that we can’t really protect ourselves from — our mind.
Yes, this is a health crisis and not only physical but also psychological. This odd era is slowly reshaping our psyche because the ultimatum we were given is either to stay safe or to stay sane.
The Beginning of the Hypochondriacs Era
The majority of the people understands and can relate to what it means to be a hypochondriac. So what exactly do I refer to by this? First, let’s define what it means medically speaking.
The disease itself is called hypochondria and it is characterized by excessive concern about contracting a serious illness. Although still called hypochondriacs, people with fears of getting sick are currently diagnosed with disease anxiety disorder, according to Mayo Clinic. Those with symptoms of this disorder interpret normal body sensations or minor localized symptoms as signs of serious illness.
In addition:
· They are restless even if the doctor or clinical tests indicate that there is no health problem;
· They worry excessively about a specific disease;
· They are afraid of having the same disease that someone in their family has;
· They worry too much about their health, with constant searches for symptoms or illnesses on the internet;
· They go to the doctor a lot or, on the contrary, avoid consultations by fear of an unfavorable diagnosis;
· They avoid activities, places, or encounters with people by fear of getting sick.
What exactly causes this disorder is not really known, but it may originate from a personal trauma or genetics. And with the COVID-19 outbreak, it is just getting worse.
Getting sick is already a reason to panic for most. In fact, because of the existence of this new-age virus and the uncertain times we are living right now, the line between safety and insanity is starting to blur a little bit.
We are constantly reminded that we should look out for symptoms very similar to a usual cold such as a rise in temperature, a sore throat, coughing, body aches, loss of smell and discomfort in the chest or trouble breathing. On top of that, we are also reminded that the symptoms might not even appear in the first place as there are those who are asymptotic altogether.
Considering all this, people are becoming hyper-aware of every single feeling of sickness that they might feel in their body and their mind doesn’t way too much to mark it as a red flag, screaming “Oh my God, it must be COVID-19!”. In other words, it seems like the era of hypochondriacs has just started at the same time this pandemic did.
CNN Health reports that according to a study published in February, it appears that this coronavirus has originated from bats as it shared 96% of the same genetic makeup, however, it is believed that bats had first infected another species which then infected the first victim of COVID-19. They also claim that early reports indicate that what transmitted the virus to humans were snakes bought at a “wet market” in Wuhan, but new reports debunk this theory as only 13 of 41 early cases of infected people were not linked in any way to the wet market.
In most of the cases, this virus strikes the elderly as well as people who suffer from serious health conditions such as heart and lung disease and diabetes. Contrary to that, there are also some death cases among people aged 20 to 50 and even children who were immune-compromised.
To prevent the spread of COVID 19, on January 23 the authorities in Wuhan decided to declare a complete lock-down of the city and 15 other cities in the Hubei region which is a home of 57 million people. After a 76-days-long lock-down and over 81 000 of infected people and over 3300 deaths, China has finally won the battle against the virus in April. Nevertheless, the war against COVID-19 was far from over, in fact, most of the countries in the world seem to have just started in March when the World Health Organization declared the virus a worldwide pandemic.
The new coronavirus has reached over 170 countries from all continents in the world, except Antarctica. It has infected millions of people and has reshaped the psyche of a million others. And, maybe even for the worse as it has infected us with another “virus” long time known as “hypochondria”.
Yes, many of us are starting to act chronically fearful of a serious or undiagnosed health condition. Maybe it is out of our control and we just can’t help it because we hear it everywhere, all the time. We are reminded to stay at home, but for many, “home” is a synonym for anxiety.
Although staying home more often than normal does not seem like that big deal, the more time passes and the more infection cases start to appear, the more both anxiety to get sick and anxiety from being locked at home begins to appear at the same time. As human beings we seek and need to connect and interact, change the scenery and atmosphere and simply be outdoors, no matter how introverted one may be.
More and more people are getting caught in the dilemma of wanting to stay home and stay safe but wanting to stay sane at the same time. However, the fact that the restrictions all around the world are starting to disappear while there are still many infected cases, gives the people mixed signals and worries them even more.
Is Hypochondria the Only Thing We Should Worry About?
Yes, being hypochondriac is not the only thing we should worry about. There is one more condition that COVID-19 seems to trigger as well — OCD disorders. And now we are really at risk of developing one as we are constantly reminded that we should wash our hands in order to protect ourselves and our own families — something that contamination OCD sufferers have been doing for most of their lives like if they were preparing themselves for COVID-19.
In fact, according to ADAA (2017), Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year while OCD affects 2.2 million adults or 1.0% of the U.S. population.
That means more and more people from the US and all around the world are living with a constant struggle related to these disorders. Some of them do know what they are dealing with, but the truth is that a lot of people cannot put a name on their condition. They do not know that what they have is not something completely normal since there are millions of other people who share the same struggle because in many societies people always ignore mental health issues and put their entire focus on the physical health issues.
Anxiety is defined as an individual’s perception of stress or worries which often are unrealistic and unreasonable. OCD is also very similar to anxiety and, in fact, it is some kind of anxiety disorder which is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears called compulsions. Obviously, there are different types of OCD, but contamination OCD is very similar to what people are experiencing now.
If you wash your hands 5 times thinking that if you don’t some of your family members might get infected of COVID-19 because of you then yes, OCD is something you should also start to worry about.
Combining these three things together: COVID-19, hypochondria, and OCD, could be the beginning of a whole new pandemic — the pandemic of health paranoia. Anxiety disorders which are the root of hypochondria and OCD are caused by fear. However, living in constant fear could also have fatal consequences on people’s physical health. And the reason is actually very simple, there is no rocket science behind it. It just weakens people’s immune system which ultimately can cause many diseases and health issues such as cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal issues, decreased fertility. In addition, it could accelerate aging and ultimately even can end up with premature death.
And that’s just the impact that fear has on the physical health. It obviously also has a tremendous impact on mental health as well. It can interrupt processes in our brains which gives us the capability to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues and other information, reflect before acting, and act in a way that we wouldn’t if we are not experiencing fear -just like many people are acting in an irrational way now due to the fear of COVID-19.
That’s why now more than ever we should try to protect our mental health with the same intensity that we are trying to protect ourselves from COVID-19. We can prevent another pandemic which would not originate from some wet market in China, but from our own minds.
‘It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to has power over you.’ — Leon Brown
