According to a document drawn up byWorld Health Organization, last October, would be almost the 60% of the European population to present the symptoms of what has been defined “pandemic fatigue”, O pandemic fatigue, a stressful condition that would affect many people during the second wave of Covid-19.
In fact, if during the first lockdown most of us managed to cling to a sort of survival instinct, with the perpetration of the health emergency the situation has become much more difficult to sustain.
This was clearly illustrated by the doctor Maria Beatrice Toro, psychotherapist and author of the new book “Beyond the pandemic. How to (well) overcome anxiety, anger and stress “, co-edited by Morellini Editore and Pulsa Editore.
“With the second wave, demotivation, apathy, fear, irrational reactions, negationist manifestations, aggressive behavior, relational withdrawal and neglect have increased, which reveal that we are losing energy as persons and as a community.“- explains Dr. Toro -“The problem is that the emergency has been going on for a long time and the emotional overload weighs more every day. Hence the pandemic attrition”.
Pandemic fatigue: what it is
In her book, psychotherapist Toro explains how the term “fatigue“Usually means one state of exhaustion and fatigue typical in situations involving an excessive emotional burden prolonged over time, such as chronic diseases, family problems but also relational and economic, constant and persistent.
The pandemic fatigue would therefore be one mental response to the stress generated, inevitably, from impact that the pandemic had – and continues to have – in our everyday life, between limitations, rules to be respected, waivers and uncertainty for the future. In addition to the actual threat to health, which is associated with the fear of contagion for oneself and loved ones, thehealth emergency has in fact brought about important changes in every sphere of our existence, from personal to working, up to economic and family, thus giving rise, in some people, to a state of stress.
I symptoms of this pandemic fatigue?
They may be different but they have mostly been associated with states of anxiety, mental and physical fatigue, apathy, pessimism, demotivation as well as anger and fear. Moods that are often accompanied by psychophysiological alterations such as hypervigilance (or perennial state of alertness), sleep disturbances and increased heart rate and pressure.
Not to mention that according to the WHO among the most serious consequences of pandemic fatigue there would be a lowering of the attention threshold and therefore a lower propensity to respect those decisive rules to protect oneself from contagion.
Pandemic fatigue: how to deal with it
Learn to manage stress and get well again however it is possible. For this reason the psychotherapist Toro in his self help manual suggests some useful strategies for dealing with the pandemic fatigue.
First rule: admit, even to themselves, their discomfort, without blame and without feeling ashamed. Personal awareness is also associated with one good dose of rationality: it is therefore essential to acquire real skills on what is happening, referring to reliable sources.
And if in the presence of many symptoms the advice remains that of consult a specialist, in the case of mild stress it can be It is useful to use self-help tools based on the so-called positive psychology. This approach, based on trust in the fundamental ability to evolve of every human being, has in fact shown how often they are their own crisis situations to induce us to bring out internal resources that we didn’t know we had.
Creativity and the ability to build new relationships with people close to us are other strategies that can make a difference in this situation, helping us to focus on what we still have in the present and not only on what the health emergency has taken away from us.
“There is no need to wait for problems to end up being happy again – says Dr. Toro – srather, it deals with a question of awareness” .
In gallery up then 7 tips from the psychotherapist to deal with the pandemic fatigue and feel good again.
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