I had the honor today to be one of the
speakers of the international webinar:
"Impacts of the Covid.19 pandemic on the
global Society: Interdisciplinary Perspectives" initiated by the M.A.
Parikh Fine Arts and Arts College , Palnapur (India).
My topic was "Mental health and
psychological resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic"
The 15th of March in Hamburg a lockdown was
decided, shops, bars, self-employed, etc. had to close down.
A week later the chancellor gave a speech on
tv and the lockdown was reality in whole Germany. The German society was
paralized- in an economic way as much as psycologically.
It appeared the German Angst. What is it?
German Angst is a diffuse fear, a needless
anxiety or worry. Sometimes it appears without any evident reason, in other
cases it is a reaction on an incidence like the separated country after World
War II with the fear of a new war.
There is the theory that it is in our genes as
an effect of the World Wars and the following hardship. The fear and the famine
found their way into the genetic information.
In the winter of 1944/45, in the Netherlands,
more than 20,000 people starved to death. Babies born during this famine winter
were very small, about 2500 grams. However, women born under these conditions
later gave birth to remarkably small children themselves - although there was
no shortage of food.
In addition, these children fell ill with
diabetes and cardiovascular disease with above-average frequency.
The Dutch researchers assume that the
starvation winter led to a change in the methylation pattern on the DNA of the
affected people.
The body has virtually switched the metabolism
over to a low flame in order to improve the chances of survival.
Will the covid 19 pandemic be marked in our
genes? Maybe.
In Germany, we have as well the feeling of
guilt due to the regime of the Nazis.
Fear and guilt produced probably this neurotic
reaction German Angst. No other citizens in the world have so many insurances,
trying to releave the consequences of a potential peril.
Possibly the experience we are living now can
trigger this diffuse fear all over the world.
Now we have a pandemic which cannot be seen
but is there. The poor - and even worse the homeless - cannot be protected in a
sufficient manner from covid-19, but everyone can catch the virus anywhere. To
develop an anxiety disorder is more probable in this setting than if there was
one traumatic moment like e.g. 9/11.
Several real dangers exist, as there are:
• the
job loss of the employed,
• the
worries of small and medium companies because of the missing sales,
• self-employed
who were forced to close their offices,
• the
lack of social assistence for poor families or families with several problems like violence, child abuse and not
enough money for food.
• People
avoid situations like seeing a doctor because of the fear to get infected with
covid-19
And there is the loneliness of persons…
A problem everybody has is the social
distancing.
If told to stay in the house, even doing
remote work, people quickly feel isolated and lonely. Humans are social beings
who need contacts and social interactions. We live on the feedback of others.
Maybe you have heard of Frederick 2's language
experiments. If not, he lived from 1194 to 1250 so it was not on the news.
In his experiment, Frederick II wanted to find
out what language children develop when they grow up without speech and
affection. Little is known about the exact course of the experiment.
However, the result was that all the children
died. He wrote: "They could not live without the clapping of hands and the
cheerful cutting of faces and the tender words of their nurses."
What can we do, to keep mentally sound in this
situation?
First of all, keep in touch with others. If we
cannot meet in person, we can use the telephone or the computer.
Even elderly people started to use software to
keep in touch with the family.
Where it is allowed, go out to the parks or
quiet places in nature. In Japan „forest bathing“ is a therapy and we all feel
how we relax and reduce stress in the nature. Scientists all over the world are
confirming positive effects.
Sport is very helpful, even if we are not
allowed to leave the house. There are many courses offered on the internet even
for free where we can excercise or dance at home. We were made for movement,
the people of the stone age used to run, jog and walk about 40 kilometres or 25
miles a day. Genetically, we are still very close! Furthermore, endorphins are
released. So we can all dope ourselves with some nice moves.
Another important point is to follow our
interests. Usually we never have time to do the things we like to do. To keep
mentally sound, it is very important to have time for things different from our
obligations like job and houshold chores. We always should take time to do
activities in which we get into a flow and forget time and space. We switch off
and prevent a possible burnout. I think we all know these moments when we
forget everything and feel relaxed afterwards. It is like a little holiday.
If we didn‘t find time before, now it is a
chance to pursue hobbies and develop new ones.
Others want to make good use of time. Why not
study some course you are interested in or which helps you in your job? Or
maybe you always wanted to learn some skill or language? This is the moment, no
excuse. There you have the time.
Voluntary work has a proven positive impact on
mental health. Helping others improves one's own mood. During the pandemic, for
example, you can go shopping for people who are chronically ill or elderly or
offer phone calls to lonely people.
How long will this social distancing last? We
do not know it and that takes us to an uncertainness which is hard to bear.
There is a trick how to deal with this.
Develop a daily routine.
For many persons it is not easy to structure
their time. Days go by and nothing has been achieved wich leads to frustration.
My recommendation:
Make a timetable and stick to it.
A job structures a lot of hours. Still, get up
the same time, even if you do not have to work.
A timetable could look like this if you do not
have to work
7 am: get
up
7.30 am go
out to run or do gymnastics
8.30 am shower
and breakfast
9.30 am check your mails
10 am study
12 prepare
lunch
1.30 pm clean
the house
3.30 pm take
a walk, supermarket, etc.
6 pm prepare
dinner
7 pm phone
friends
8 pm hobby
10 pm meditation,
yoga, read, something quiet to relax
11 pm go
to bed
The daily routine helps to structure the day.
This prevents to lose yourself in a spiral of negative thinking which can lead
to a depressive episode.
Plan your phone calls, keep in touch so you
can check on the mood of others and talk to share experiences. The interaction
with others is vital, as we heard above.
It helps as well to talk about worries and get a piece of advice.
Furthermore, others usually detect changes in mood earlier than the affected
person herself or himself. A good friend or a family member might even feel when
it is time to look for professional help.
Positive thoughts to find the good things in a
bad situation might lead to a change in life. Maybe the job is not interesting.
In this case, the pandemic can be the chance to think about new objectives.
Employees working remote from home and maybe
with children they have to look after, have high levels of stress. If they
already have latent psychological problems, they feel the pressure and develop
depressions, anxiety disorders and in some cases obsessive-compulsive
disorders. For this reason it can be helpful to follow the above
recommendations to protect the mental health.
Children feel that their parents are stressed,
no matter if it is for the lack of work or the work from home, lack of money or
food.
Perhaps the appartment is small. The family sticks together 24 hours without any privacy.
In a reduced space with an excess of stress,
people tend to be aggressive. If someone is already aggressive, easily it can
turn into violence, especially if there is an abuse of alcohol or other drugs
as well. During lockdown, there was an increase of sales of beer and wine of
more than 35% in Germany.
Even in small places it is possible to find
space. The family can make a plan where to find a hideaway at home or which
times the family decides to do quiet activities, activities together or which
rooms are assigned to whom at what time. Again, this is structure and some
rules make life easier.
Now, at the end, a little outlook.
During the time of the lockdown many persons
started to question the way of life of consuming and traveling always more.
Yeast and flour were sold out during the
lockdown. Suddenly every German seemed to bake at home. They started to
redecorate their appartments, houses and gardens. People were sharing on social
media platforms crafts, recipes, gardening, how to avoid waste, how to clean
without chemicals, etc. This illustrates that people reconsider alternative
ways of life.
They started to think and discuss about the
movement “Fridays for Future“ of the young who want to protect nature and stop
the climate change.
Never the air has been so clean like during
lockdown. For a sustainable life there have to be made changes.
In the newspapers there was a discussion
whether the virus is a wake up call for mankind. As well, this situation can be
a chance.
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Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a course?
