Coronaphobia & Coronavirus Anxiety – Hypnotherapy Vlog

In this video I talk about coronaphobia, the fear of catching Covid-19. As with other health anxiety, the fear of you or loved ones contracting coronavirus. It can lead to heightened awareness of physical symptoms and catastrophic thoughts around death and dying. In common with other anxiety and fears, it can lead to avoidance of certain places and situations and overwhelming anxiety in situations such as public places. The more anxious you feel, the more you can experience physical symptoms such as a rapid heart rate, changes in breathing and sweating, and these add to worries about having caught the virus (leading to more negative thinking etc).

One of the novel features of coronavirus is the uncertainty that exists and the ever changing landscape and changes in habits that are required. There is no escape from information, news and new behaviours (such as face masks and social distancing) and that can add to the discomfort, fear and anxiety. As well as the health anxiety, there are also worries about the impact on finances and employment should you contract coronavirus.

You can watch the video by clicking on the link here:

Coronaphobia and Coronavirus Anxiety

Hello. It’s Dan here. I hope you’re good today. Now, inevitably, with all the talk of coronavirus, it’s in the news, there’s talk about second peaks, more restrictions, lockdowns, increasing cases. There’s a lot of stuff going on and obviously, over the months, there’s been more and more research into the area around mental health to do with coronavirus.

And recently a paper came out which sought to define coronaphobia, which is the kind of excessive fear of contracting the coronavirus, and leads to  worries around dying, the impacts of it, because it’s a very uncertain thing, which is a breeding ground for fear and anxiety, the uncertainty, the fact it impacts on every area of life, the fact none of us quite know what is going happen, the fact that if you were to get it the consequences are unclear. It’s a very kind of changing landscape, there’s a lot of uncertainty, loads of changes in our daily behaviour, you can’t avoid it, it’s there when you’re out and about, with face masks, social distancing, washing your hands, are reminders all the time.

Obviously that kind of thing, and the kind of trauma and stress of that can lead to the point where it becomes an excessive fear that means that when people are talking about it, or something reminds you of it, that you get the kind of physical symptoms, dizziness, hotness, tension, interferes with eating and sleeping. There are worries and your kind of thoughts around if I get this I’ll die, if my kids get it they will die, if I get this I won’t be able to work, I’ll lose my job and all those other thoughts. Typical anxiety and fear where worst case scenarios come in, they generate more physical feelings and then you worry about stuff even more.

Particularly with coronavirus, it’s very similar to health anxiety in some way in that you may experience some physical symptoms of some kind. They may be due to anxiety and you start to notice that stuff and you start to worry that maybe you have coronavirus and it starts to escalate and peak in the kind of physical and the kind of mental stuff that you experience, or we get physical feedback from the body, you feel a little bit dizzy, you feel a bit tight in the chest, you have a bit of a cough, someone around you does, kids do, someone in the same environment at school, work, or socially. is experiencing that stuff, or maybe there’s even a perception that someone does have it and they need to go for a test and the result hasn’t come back but all the uncertainty, all the potential impacts lead to that excessive, overwhelming fear and anxiety, that can interfere with  you just feeling OK, or thinking clearly and logically about things, or can just interfere with you living your life in the new normal.

You might avoid things, you might feel really anxious if you have to go places, you might excessively wash your hands and do those kind of things. You might already be making excuses not to be in certain environments, you  may feel very tense and anxious if you have to go to the office for example. I’ve had clients recently where this has been a topic of discussion. I can say it’s very linked to other anxiety kind of patterns, to health anxiety, and a focus on symptoms, and a focus on whether you will be able to cope and handle it if stuff did happen.

And obviously we all need to be aware, we all need to take the proper actions, washing our hands, keeping our distance, and doing the best we can with those things to mitigate that risk. But there’s always a tendency, I think, with this kind of stuff because of the uncertainty, because we have to change out habits, because in the news we see high profile people can get it, because of all the figures, and deaths and cases, things from abroad, and obviously the stuff in the news is all focussed on the bad stuff. It’s how they do their business, isn’t it. They kind of create that fear that engages us and we find ourselves wanting to know more and more but, because it’s so uncertain, a lot of it that we will see in the news or read is just conjecture. It’s just someone’s opinion on what might happen, it’s not necessarily what is going to happen. And often these experts themselves are even misguided but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be cautious, and we shouldn’t take the right precautions, but what it does mean, and as I’ve talked to my clients around, it means that you need to do stuff that you can do, that you can control.

Like I say, controlling how you go into an environment, keeping your distance from people, wearing a mask, washing your hands, you can control that, and you’re in charge of how you do that and can be quite kind of thorough and conscientious around it. You can also seek to mitigate things when you go into situations but will also want to look after yourself. Take time to relax. Use a free audio on my site, use other things, ways to just switch off and let your brain and your body have time off from that stuff. So you’re not just running those thoughts around what if I get the virus, if I get it and have to go to hospital who’s going to look after the kids. All that kind of stuff will just make you feel more anxious, you experience more physical symptoms, leads to more thoughts and also adds on that kind of health stuff of I’m experiencing all this physical stuff there must be something going on.

So, we want to do a whole range of things, like I say, finding ways to relax, exercise is a good thing to do, taking time and making sure you get enough rest and sleep. But also we want to be quite objective and logical in our thinking as to how many cases are there, or have I been in contact with people who have this stuff, because sometimes our minds can get carried away and start to speculate on that worst case thing of cases arising and almost jumps to the conclusion that, like fortune telling, I’m going to get this, there are going to be impacts from it, it’s all going to be bad but we know that the virus is a bit different to that. Most people haven’t got it and probably just won’t get it.

You can do things to aim to, like I say to mitigate the risk. You can keep an objective view on actually what are the number of cases around here. Have I been into contact with those people. And to view this stuff objectively, taking care of yourself like I say but also if you come to think about it into the future and allow for the fact that there are other possibilities, there is the worst case but there are also best cases, and a whole range in-between. You might get it but be totally asymptomatic, you might have to quarantine for a couple of weeks and all is well. You might get it and not even ever know you’ve got it. There are a whole range of potential things, you might get it and be unwell for a period but there are no other consequences from it.

There are a whole range of things that could happen, and because we don’t know, allow that, allow that range of possibilities to be in your mind. Again, if you’re going to think  what people tend to do with anxiety is to go what if this happens, and start feeling anxious around opening the possibility of disaster, whereas it’s probably better to more engage in kind of if then thinking, if this was to happen then I would do this. There are things you can do, you’re not going to passively go along doing nothing, and not taking any action or make any decisions along the way. If you were to get it then you would put things in place. Whether that’s people to look after the kids, whether you put other arrangements, whether if there are things at school and you had to home school for a period. There are a whole range of things. If that happens then I would do this but certainly I would aim to be objective about what is the actual situation, what are the facts here, rather than that conjecture but anything that mentally calms you, physically relaxes you is certainly going to help as well.

And there are a whole range of things we can do to kind of combat fears and anxieties but certainly starting to put some of those things into place, often we need to challenge our thinking to stop it running away, and to stop it creating those worst case scenarios and, like I say, bring things back to the now where, hopefully as you’re watching this, you’re healthy and well and OK which means you can continue to take steps, you can continue to be mindful, you can continue to look after yourself but, if you are going to think, you want to think in that logical, planning kind of way, not in an anxious, open-ended kind of way.

Please do take advantage of the free audio on my website, please do keep active in doing those things, please do keep yourself and your family safe, but also, like I say, be prepared to calm down that thinking, to interrupt that stuff and to recognise what’s an anxious thought and what is an actual thought, what’s a kind of anxious projection and what are the actual objective facts and what do I know is reality right now. So, bringing things back, thinking more clearly, looking after yourself, finding time to relax and to exercise and to do that good stuff.

And if you need any more help around health anxiety or coronaphobia, or dealing with the stress and the worry and the thinking patterns around that, get in touch and let’s have a chat, and there are a whole range of things that other clients have found particularly useful and I’m sure I can help you with that too, But in the meantime, keep safe, look after yourself and I will speak to you very soon. You take care now.

Dan Regan

23 September 2020

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

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