That the continuous reference to infections, symptoms and disease ended up having a negative impact on our psyche was imaginable. And today a confirm potential risks of this condition are also the psychiatrists that speak of a concrete threat, that of a real one covid hypochondria.
In fact, the term hypochondria indicates a disorder characterized by constant apprehension about one’s health and the anxious, if not downright obsessive, tendency to overestimate any disturbance, even the slightest one.
“The fact that every day we can face a health problem that concerns us personally or indirectly, is now present in the lives of all of us – underline the experts of the Italian Society of Psychiatry (SIP) – and risks alter and condition the perception of the disease, interpreting in an exaggerated way sensations of danger and malaise, with important repercussions from the psychic point of view ».
To exacerbate this situation would also be the ways in which we too often hear about the pandemic: i constant references to dramatic events of the past, like the Spanish or the plague, and recurring phrases like “We’ll all take it anyway” in fact, according to psychiatrists, they risk increasing anxiety by making the most sensitive people and most exposed to the danger of compulsive manifestations of symptoms. In fact, a simple cough or a sneeze is enough to often ignite the fear of being infected.
These factors contribute to increase the fear of getting sick that in some cases, the experts still point out, can become an element out of control and “make people excessively vulnerable to the perception of potential risk, even in the face of real situations, where there is no risk”.
Covid anxiety: how to deal with it
As the alarm raised by the Italian Society of Psychiatry highlights, Covid-19 therefore continues to have a strong impact on mental health of many people.
“Covid has increased the growth of a condition called” disease anxiety “, in which fears about one’s health become excessive and persistent – explains the Doctor Francesco Minelli, psychologist and psychotherapist – In this condition, every small signal from the body can be interpreted as a sign of a more serious and potentially fatal disease. Without considering that, at the present stage, with a decisive one decrease of restrictions, many individuals have experienced a increased concerns about possible contagion rather than the freedom to socialize again. Our mind is very good at anticipating all possible future dangers and constantly projecting them so as to make us put in place all the necessary safety measures. The problem is that, at times, it tends to exaggerate and make us see dangers even where there are none ».
If, in the most serious cases, Covid hypochondria and the resulting anxiety state, it may require, as the Italian Society of Psychiatry also points out, a specialist treatment path, there are however small tricks that we can all take, in everyday life, to limit risks.
«The first thing to do to limit anxiety is definitely seek news only from reliable sources, avoiding paying attention to discussions on social media that tend to disseminate information that is often inaccurate and unverifiable – stresses the psychotherapist – In the same way, it is good avoid doing self-diagnosis via the web even when it comes to a reliable website: diagnoses, especially when it comes to anxiety, must always be made by experienced professionals “.
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