Pandemic Fear: what is the role of EI in the Coronavirus crisis?

“Fear is not real. The only place where it can exist is in our thoughts about the future. It is a product of our imagination that makes us fear in the present things that do not exist and may not even exist in the future. This is almost insanity. Danger is real, Fear is a choice ”.  

Captain Cypher Rage, After Earth movie

Fear. One of the most relevant human emotions, it protects us from dangers. Reactions caused by fear allow us to act quickly, without the aid of thought. In general, it proved to be a great deal to ensure our survival. That′s the reason fear is one of the emotions most researched by scientists, even because it is easy to be perceived and provoked. Prudence, high critical analysis and careful planning are possible contours to the human behavior of those who have something to fear. But there are several negative effects.

When is it that fear becomes a problem? Some possible answers: 1) when it leads us to make hasty and clumsy decisions; 2) when it is based on imaginary interpretations, hallucinations; 3) when it does not go away, settling in people as if it were a subliminal program; 4) when it comes from collective “contagion”, that is, it is based on a shared and reverberated feeling, with no basis sustained in reality.

A strange combination of these four aggravating factors seems to be what we are experiencing with the coronavirus pandemic. Words like "panic", "alarm", "concern" and "catastrophe" have frequently appeared in the news in the description of the latest events. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Try watching any news program for five minutes. I did this as an exercise for this article. I confess that I had to put the TV on "mute". For I could feel the wave of distress rising as if the words were smoking. And yes, this exercise can be stifling, debilitating and even paralyzing. This is the response that fear causes in our body. And to escape from them, unfortunate decisions are made. In addition, continuous suffering is installed in the mind of those who are afraid.

This is because once we have an insistent emotion it becomes distressing and, by definition it means that what feeds it is the thought itself, no longer the reality that presents itself. At that point, we started doing our best to confirm it. In our workshops through @ConexaoIE in Brazil, we usually validate all emotions, from the most pleasant to the most unpleasant, since they bring valuable information to our understanding of the world, personal expression and interaction with other people. However, an emotion becomes pathological when we attach a postal code to it. In this case, all activity is addressed to the same place, that is, every fact is read and interpreted with the same emotional filter: being trapped in an emotion, we ignore any previous or new knowledge that could disable it. We enter what is known as a “refractory process”. The contagion of this feeling is continually expanding, to all places of our mind. Kind of like a pandemic.

Is this the case with the coronavirus in Brazil? Some analysts point out: there are much more serious viruses, the fatality in this case is low, the contagion rate also. But the consequences of this disease are already real and the losses go far beyond the “lethality” of the virus. They are economic losses, contracts being broken, job losses. There is paralysis in commerce relations between countries. And people hold their breath as they think about what will happen next.

The report of an Italian nurse on television news points to the inconsistency between the authorities' coping strategies and people's perceptions. According to her, especially the elderly are “having difficulty meeting what the government asks. People do not perceive the danger, do not understand the danger and therefore underestimate it ”. At the time, it occurred to me: do these elderly people underestimate the virus or try to let go of dread, escaping to another reading of reality?

Okay, so let's get to some facts. There are two lists. In the first, I included some inherently positive or calming peace of information (fear deactivators) that I researched about the virus and in the second I bring some recent decisions taken by global leaders. All of them come from news widely disseminated on social networks or available online.

Coronavirus facts available (as March, 13th)

• Coronavirus has low lethality in Brazil, around 1,6% and could be even lower due to unreported/untested cases (updated on March, 22th - O Estado de S?o Paulo). In countries where the rate is higher, it is because the people tested are already hospitalized, which causes a distortion in the percentage contaminated / killed (Time / Various Infectologists).
• There are practically no cases in children. Only 3% of cases occur in children under 20 and mortality in children under 40 is only 0.2%. In children, the symptoms are so mild that they can go unnoticed. (CDC - Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
• A person infected with the coronavirus can usually pass it on to two or three others, which makes it a low-contagious disease. A measles patient, for example, can infect another 13 people (Harvard CCDD)
• Never before had we understood a virus so quickly. The first AIDS cases were described in June 1981 and it took more than two years to identify the virus that caused the disease. The first cases of the new coronavirus were reported in China on December 31, 2019 and by January 7 the virus had already been identified (WHO / BBC News Brazil).
• The vast majority of the dead already had a disease or weakened immune system (BBC).
• Other antiviral drugs are already successfully prescribed for treatment. There are already more than 80 clinical trials to analyze treatments for coronavirus in current cases (Washington Post).
• Washing your hands regularly and avoiding bringing them to your face is an extremely effective measure to prevent contagion. Keep your environments clean too. It is neither necessary nor recommended to use a mask, unless you are infected (to prevent spread) (CDC - Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
•  Like any flu, having a strong immune system contributes to not developing the disease. For that it is recommended to have a regulated diet and a healthy lifestyle (Entrepreneur / Health Direct )

Some recent headlines, available in news (as March, 13th)

• United States cancel flights from Europe.
• Airlines were down 30% on the Stock Exchange. Some have already laid off 50% of employees.
• Italy isolates 16 million people against the advance of the coronavirus, predicting a billion dollar loss to the economy.
• France closes schools but maintains municipal elections.
• Stock exchange twice, falls 14.7 and has the worst drop in 22 years.
• In Brazil, 15 million masks are imported by the Ministry of Health at USD 0,40 each. Previous price was in the order of dimes per unit. (Globo News, a few hours ago).

 What's up? Compare the lists. Does it make sense? Doesn't there seem to be a clear imbalance between stimulus (fact / reality / context) and response (emotional reaction / corrective action)? In this case: are we experiencing a fear pandemic? Clearly the answer appears to be YES. It is a pity that we do not have a disclosure with such wide global coverage for this.

 But since we work with emotional intelligence, it is worth seeking help here. If we are living in a pandemic of fear, with greater intensity and contagion more accelerated than that of the coronavirus, how to avoid being contaminated with this feeling, that is, how to manage emotionally what we are experiencing?

The answer is simple: acting just as we do to avoid contracting the virus itself. In this case, it is about emotional hygiene. Avoid contact with people in a panic, avoid talking about it if you are contaminated with fear and keep your terrible news under control and surveillance, without sending it to the nearest people. Turn off the news as soon as you start to feel any discomfort, expand knowledge about reality and share good facts that surround the topic, especially for children and the elderly, groups at risk of collective fear.

 Other protective measures: for those isolated or for those who must carry on their routines, carry on paying attention to the dangers that surround us, without, however, allowing ourselves to be dominated by “catastrophic” and imaginary scenarios. Strengthen our immune system against negative emotions, enjoying a varied menu of experiences, which includes positive emotions such as well-being, joy and even gratitude. Finally, ensure a healthy environment, a kind of quarantine, especially if people around you are contaminated ... strengthen your body in the meantime, from quick bubbles of mindfulness and deep breaths, preferably with your eyes gently closed. Drink water, take sunbaths. Knead the cats at home. Cook healthy food. Share with those you love. If you are well, your body has all the strength it needs to overcome this moment. Trust me. Take a deep breath, get some fresh air. With emotional intelligence, it's safe to move on. ??