For physical practices such as regular hand washing with soap under running water, use of 60% or more alcohol-based hand sanitizers when water and soap are not available, sanitizing our door handles, electrical gadgets and others, adequate rest and sleep, more fruits and vegetables in take, taking adequate water, coughing or sneezing into tissue or elbow and discard tissue immediately into bin, and wash your hands with soap under running water or use of alcohol-based sanitizer to holistically work to protect us against Covid-19 pandemic, our mental and psychosocial health cannot be overlooked, hence, it is very important we look at ways to improve our mental and psychosocial health in a pandemic era like this to boost our immune system to fight this Covid-19, together we can!
Before then, let us look at how fear and panic compromise our immune system and make us prone to disease like the Covid-19 pandemic. The immune system produces antibodies, which act as ‘soldiers’ to fight against antigens such as viruses immediately detected in the body to prevent sickness. When there is fear and panic, the body releases a primary stress hormone called cortisol which suppresses our immune system by reducing the number of its virus-fighting cells, hence, making you prone to COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases.
The following emotional tools and practices can help us to keep our immune system healthy to prevent COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases.
1. Be calm, calm and calm down. How do we do that? First, seek the right information from the right source. In pandemic outbreak like this, seek information from only healthcare professionals, and from website like World Health Organization (https//:www.who.int), Ghana Health Service/Ministry of Health (https//:www.ghanahealthservice.org/covid19) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (https//:www.cdc.gov) to calm you down. Avoid watching or reading or listening to news that causes you to feel anxious or distressed. Also, avoid using unhelpful coping strategies like tobacco use, alcohol use and other drugs to calm you down, these rather worsen your situation, and prone you to Covid-19 pandemic and other diseases. Lastly, have in mind that the current situation will not go away overnight, hence, should focus on adopting long term preventive behaviour measures to calm you down.
2. The Power of Pause, Present Moment Awareness and Heartful Emotion Affect Regulation Training. Whenever you’re in a fear and panic state, first, pause and observe your reaction from a third party, then reflect on the present moment like COVID-19, and take deep breaths for at least two times. This helps to relax your muscles, and calm down your whole mind and body complex.
3. Robust social networking. During pandemic times like COVID-19, it is very important to engage with friends and family very well. This is the time we need social support. Due to strict social isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is important to use digital method to reach friends and family. We can make phone call to check on ourselves, through social media networks like WhatsApp, Facebook, instagram, zoom, Skype and others, we can chat with friends and families. We need this to promote our mental and psychosocial health to boost our immune system to protect us against COVID-19 and other diseases.
4. Promote children’s mental and psychosocial health. Children may be for instance prone to long term damage to their immune system through Early Life Stress (ELS). This is because children are most likely to pick up the stress and anxiety their parents are going through so it is very important in this critical time as parents or guardians to apply point 1,2,3 aforementioned to calm your children to boost their immune system to protect them against Covid-19. Furthermore, parents should create opportunity like playing for the child to bring out his or her emotional feelings, and address them in a honest and age-appropriate way. Lastly, encourage children to play and socialise with others, even if only within the family.
#Spreadcalmnotfear (courtesy; Ministry of Information, Ghana).#Letprotect&fightcovid-19pandemictogether.
Sources; 1. https//:www.who.int
2. https//:www.ghanahealthservice.org/covid19
3’. https//:www.psychologytoday.com
Kwasi Omaro 