In this article about Overcoming Anxiety And Tension During COVID-19 Lockdown I am going to talk about my personal experience and methods to achieve this.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and have no medical qualifications so please consult a professional if you are having difficulties during this lockdown period
4 Causes of Anxiety.
Now there are a lot more issues that cause a person to become anxious but i am going to discuss these four:
1. Anxiety about This we cannot Control If these things are beyond our control, why do we get so concerned about them.
2. Anxiety about the Economy: This is almost part of the first item but it does impact on our income and our quality of life.
3. Anxiety about Isolation: Social distancing is not something that we tend to practice as a rule but it is now a necessity, whether we agree with it or not.
4. Anxiety Of not being able to Worship at Church The Spiritual Food that We rely on every week is now not available but, the creator is everywhere.
1. Anxiety About Things we cannot Control
There are many things in life that we have not been able to control and this is just another to be filed in the back of our minds but Not Forgotten!
If there was not such a huge thing made of the COVID 19 virus we would really have not been so anxious about it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a big thing but, so are heart attacks, diabetes, stroke and many other illnesses that could affect us every day.
The difference between the two concerns is that with the older diseases we have:
- Have learned to accept it as something we have little or no control over, or
- We have learned how to mitigate the risks and take the necessary actions like exercising, eating correctly etc.
So, if we look at the emerging statistics on the CORONA 19 Virus, it is less dangerous than a lot of these other diseases. The reason for the lockdown is that the hospitals needed the time to prepare to deal with the virus and to learn how it affected humans.
We have already heard an ever changing list of:
- how deadly it is
- ways it survives on different surfaces
- how long it survives in the air
- how far it can be transported in the air
- what it does to our lungs, blood vessels and more.
Surely, if we observe the social distancing, wear our masks and wash our hands as it is suggested, we can mitigate the chances of infection, making it comparable to contracting the common flu with similar severity. Something we live with every year.
So what do we take away from this current tragedy? Well, let’s look at why we are anxious considering everything:
- Looking at the real data collected over the past few weeks, the death rate is nowhere near as high as it was predicted to be. In fact, it is more in line with the annual flu outbreaks.
- Most people that contract it never know they had it.
- We know that people with underlying conditions like heart disease, asthma and diabetes are at higher risk of it having a serious effect on their health and even death. How do we mitigate this, by practising the prescribed actions of wearing masks and gloves when out, Cleaning hands regularly, etc.
So why are we so anxious? It is clearly not as big an issue as it was originally made out to be and if we take the reasonable precautions the risks should be as low as the seasonal flu.
2. Anxiety About The Economy
No doubt, The economy is in trouble:
- Many businesses will fail
- millions will lose their jobs
- many will have to rely on unemployment
- the standards of living will change
Life as we know it has changed, but is that a bad thing? We have a chance to reinvent society, to change how we look at things and set new goals and standards.
Although many people will have lost their jobs, this is nothing new to a lot of us and people will have to adjust to a new way of life:
- Fewer takeaways – good for our health – less chance of infections
- start growing our own veggies and fruit in our gardens -fewer pesticides, preservatives, colourants, additives, radiation and, fresher food.
- More exercise from gardening and cutting your own lawn etc.
- home businesses will be the in thing, so too online businesses.
- Homeschooling will probably experience a boost, at least in the short to medium term (we are not all cut out to be teachers😒.
We will all have to find a way to earn a living and I would suggest that you start looking now. Waiting for the end of the lockdown could take months and many people will already be trying to get ahead of the pack by starting their own home business of some sort now, rather than to wait and see if they still have a job in a few months. It is likely that at least one person in the home will have lost their job and will need to bring in money somehow.
3. Anxiety about Isolation:
This is where a peoples person can take strain and we will probably find that a lot of loners are finding that, in fact, they enjoy having people around more than they liked to believe. Either way, there is a way to have some form of personal contact.
OK, so there is no touchy, touchy, kissy, kissy but you can still see and communicate with others on your phone, laptop, PC or Tablet, and this does not even have to be costly if you have WhatsApp, Zoom, skype or a similar program. Heck, you can even all sit at your braai and talk, you will even have the satisfying smell of meat sizzling on the fire while you chat on Skype.
Downer, no Klippies or Captain! Well, there is always pineapple beer or ginger beer 🥴 and you will at least have the digital company of friends and the smell of the braai!
Heck, in a couple of years, we can all sit around a fire at your place and braai ( it’ll be too expensive to braai at my place🤣) and reminisce about those “Lockdown Days”. In the interim, let’s just “klets” (chat) on the old phone or something, just to keep in touch and motivate each other
4. Anxiety Of Not Being Able To Worship At Church
our weekly meeting at our places of worship is important and many of us rely on it for spiritual upliftment and to mix with people of our faith and usually our culture but most importantly, to worship.
Now the Government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that, according to the statistics, it is too dangerous to congregate at our places of worship. Now it might be so, if the data is correct, but I leave that for you to determine.
One piece of data is however not disputed, The Creator Is Everywhere and you can worship him just as effectively from home during this period. One better, why not hold a Teleprayer Meeting? We video call, video conference, Skype, Zoom for everything else, Why not a prayer meeting or even a sermon from our ministers?
There is absolutely no reason to be anxious about not going to Church when we have all these ways to hold services and prayer meetings. Is it the same as meeting at Church on Sunday? No, but we are showing the creator that we are still faithful to him, even during the lockdown.
Can We Beat Anxiety
Absolutely, anxiety can be defeated and all it takes is you! Ok, it works better with other people as well but:
- Be active, walk between 6 & 9 am
- Start a Veggie Garden,
- Communicate with friends and family by phone, WhatsApp, Skype, and Zoom but communicate.
- evaluate what your options are for the future and develop a strategy going forward. We cannot just sit and wait and see! If you don’t do something about your future, someone else will do it for you and it might not be what you anticipated.
Don’t stress! the coronavirus appears not to be as dangerous as it was made out to be by the authorities. Many Doctors are speaking out and saying that it is no worse than the annual flu virus. The Health services needed the time to understand and prepare for the virus and we were fed a lot of misinformation. Not My words but the words of many medical & Gov. officials around the world.
Yes, we Golden Oldies and those with underlying medical conditions are a higher risk than healthy people but then we have always been at higher risk for Heart disease, hypertension and many other issues as we grow older. We are even at higher risk for the annual flu virus. We don’t go into shutdown for that. We simply take reasonable precautions and go on living.
We were created to live. Yes, there are lots of diseases out there that affect us but that has never been an excuse to stop living. Live, Pray, Love and the world will go on.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and have no medical qualifications so please consult a professional if you are having difficulties during this lockdown period
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“It is better to have prepared and never to need it than to be unprepared and be in desperate need of it”.
Be Aware. Be Safe. Be Prepared!