Anxiety In Health Personnel In The COVID-19 Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic not only poses a risk from the point of view of physical illnesses. In addition, it has increased the risk of developing psychological health problems, both due to the implications of being exposed to COVID-19 and its impact on the economy and people’s lifestyles.
However, one of the most important aspects of this COVID-19 crisis context is that it does not affect everyone equally. One of the groups most affected by the virus and its illness is that of health professionals, who have been exposed to a very complicated work situation for several weeks in a row, marked by stress and anxiety.
That is precisely what we are going to talk about in this article, about the psychological alterations linked to anxiety in doctors, nursing staff and professions associated with health in general.
First of all, let’s look at the nature of the anxiety developed by a large part of healthcare personnel during the coronavirus crisis, to understand what the problem is. To do this, you have to know distinguish between anxiety as a psychological alteration and anxiety as a psychological adaptation mechanism
Although when we think about what anxiety entails, all the discomfort it usually generates comes to mind, the truth is that it is not negative in itself. In reality, the fact that it is present in most animals already gives us a clue that it is very useful.
The reason is that when we are anxious, we are usually more willing to stay safe and avoid unnecessary harm and trouble. For example, during these days anxiety is part of what has led millions of people to adopt social distancing and infection prevention measures.
However, There are cases in which anxiety becomes so extreme that it becomes an added problem in itself, something we must learn to manage through conscious efforts. And when this is combined with the need to attend to responsibilities as important as those of hospital health personnel, the mixture can generate a high level of psychological exhaustion.
Manifestations of anxiety in health personnel in the COVID-19 crisis
The healthcare personnel who have been involved in ensuring the well-being of patients and treating them in the best possible way during the COVID-19 crisis has found itself, almost overnight, faced with the need to give the maximum of its work capacity even without having sufficient material resources.
To a certain extent, anxiety is justified by the work situation, but in certain cases this level of emotional disturbance remains practically all day with high levels of intensity, threatening not to disappear even in the face of a decrease in contagion cases. It is true that it is not just a psychological problem, given that their working conditions are very harsh, but we cannot deny that The way in which one learns to manage emotions plays an important role
Now… how are anxiety problems expressed in healthcare personnel in times of coronavirus? Let’s look at a summary of your symptoms.
Many healthcare professionals experience anxiety as something that exhausts their patience; not because they consciously believe that there is reason to be angry with their environment, but because of the emotional fatigue of constantly having to deal with urgent problems of great importance to patients. Thus, It is relatively common for them to be frustrated and more inclined to have arguments or outbursts of anger even in the domestic sphere, with all the problems that this entails.
2. Rumination and feelings of guilt
When you work every day with people who depend totally or almost totally on your work, it is easier to end up with feelings of guilt. Thoughts about what could have been done but weren’t painful memories that emerge in consciousness again and again… They are characteristics of a phenomenon known as psychological rumination, and which is typical of anxiety problems.
Basically, the person who experiences psychological rumination has problems “stopping thinking” about an idea that causes discomfort or whose contents are disturbing in some way.
3. Problems in processing episodic future thought
It seems that people who suffer from generalized anxiety have problems managing psychological processes based on episodic future thinking, that is, predictions about what will happen.
Specifically, these mental representations based on imagination are less vivid than in other people, and are biased towards pessimism In this way, it is easier to believe that nothing will change for the better, which contributes to the person not trying to address their problems in those aspects that are under their control.
Sleep disturbances are very common among those who suffer from anxiety This is very notable in the case of healthcare personnel, because the lack of rest makes them work worse, exposing themselves even more to problems.
5. Emotional fatigue
As a result of all of the above, the emotional fatigue that health professionals develop is mixed with the physical fatigue of working under pressure
