The anxiety caused by the pandemic is nothing short of extreme. Fear of catching the virus, fear of having the virus and fear of losing one’s job has created a state of anxiety some have called coronaphobia. The National Institutes of Health has a more detailed description of this heightened state of fear caused by Covid-19:
coronaphobia as an excessive triggered response of fear of contracting the virus causing COVID-19, leading to accompanied excessive concern over physiological symptoms, significant stress about personal and occupational loss, increased reassurance and safety seeking behaviors, and avoidance of public places and situations, causing marked impairment in daily life functioning. The triggers involve situations or people involving probability of virus contraction, such as, meeting people, leaving house, travelling, reading the updates or news, falling ill or going for work outside.
An article published for The Conversation.com in March 2020 and entitled 7 ways to manage your #coronaphobia highlights just how pervasive coronaphobia has become. While Covid induced anxiety will be temporary for most people, some will have anxiety about leaving the safety of their home and going back to normal life. Individuals affected by this heightened level of anxiety “might avoid seeking medical care, isolate themselves from others unnecessarily, or be debilitated with fear.” The article reports on an Australian survey taken in 2020 that found 1 out of every 4 adults were “very or extremely worried about contracting COVID-19; about half were worried about their loved ones contracting it” (Newby and Werner-Seidler). Bear in mind that this article was written during the beginning of lockdown and the world has seen several waves of Covid variants so the anxiety level will have gone through the roof for many people.
The article offers seven tips on how to manage coronaphobia. Three are listed and the rest can be found by clicking here.
1. Reassure yourself, it’ll get better: for most people, the anxiety will get better as the threat of COVID-19 passes. If anxiety doesn’t go away, it can be treated
2. Change your ‘information diet’: spending time reading alarming tales of the horrors of COVID-19 will probably increase anxiety, not reduce it. Instead, try spending time focusing on positive information, stories or activities that take your mind off your fears.
3. Think logically about the risk: coronavirus has led to tragedy for many families, and we acknowledge the risk and consequences of contracting coronavirus differs from person to person. However, keep in mind over 90% of people infected with coronavirus in Australia have already recovered. The number of cases is also still extremely low, with 7,072 confirmed cases to date out of about 25 million people/
Newby, Jill and Werner-Seidler, Aliza
For a different perspective of this subject, check out the trailer for Coronaphobia, described as “a light hearted Comedic feature film written and produced to bring some much needed joy after what we all went through in 2020.” The movie was produced and directed by Ms. Michelle and premiered at the Las Vegas Black Film Festival on April 3, 2021.
Social Media Trends as of September 3, 2022
Facebook #coronaphobia: 1,200 people are posting about this
Instagram #coronaphobia: 1,181 posts
TikTok #coronaphobia: 926,000 views
YouTube #coronaphobia: 117 videos and 58 channels
Google Trends: coronaphobia first registered as a search term in January 2020. The pandemic was raging in China and news of the virus had spread worldwide. People everywhere were worried about the possibility of the Coronavirus spreading to their country. The popularity of the term reached its peak during the week of November 14, 2021 as the Omicron variant was in full swing and was much more contagious than previous Covid-19 variants.
Sources:
Alisha Arora, Amrit Kumar Jha, Priya Alat, and Sitanshu Sekhar Das. “Understanding Coronaphobia.” National Institutes of Health. September 6, 2020. URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474809/#:~:text=Based%20on%20a%20review%20of,increased%20reassurance%20and%20safety%20seeking.
Ms. Michelle. “CORONAPHOBIA Movie Official Trailer 2021.” YouTube. April 3, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8JMOFR655c.
Newby, Jill and Werner-Seidler, Aliza. “7 ways to manage your #coronaphobia.” The Conversation.com. May 20, 2020. URL: https://theconversation.com/7-ways-to-manage-your-coronaphobia-138120.