Continuous bathing in panic lowers body resistance
The discovery of coronavirus cases in Turkey has caused great panic and anxiety among the public. Experts are warning those who shop for more food than necessary in the markets, try to protect themselves by staying at home and isolating themselves from life, and those who have panic attacks. Stating that the situation should not be turned into health anxiety, psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Erkmen points out that the person cannot take real precautions with the fear of getting sick or dying.
Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Brain Hospital Psychiatry Specialist Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Erkmen shared important advice to individuals affected by the coronavirus from a psychological perspective.
"Haste makes mistakes!"
Stating that there should be no panic, Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Erkmen said, "In all kinds of disasters that come to mind, panicking and panicking will make the situation worse, not better. In very acute disasters, for example, when a fire breaks out in a building, those who can get out without panicking can survive, while those who panic can lose their lives. We also encounter this situation in earthquakes, people jump out of windows and lose their lives, but when you look at it, we see that nothing happened to anyone. Therefore, it is necessary to leave the panic aside. Of course, precautions should be taken, the coronavirus is a pandemic that has been seen in recent years and is effective worldwide. The World Health Organization has also declared that this situation is a pandemic."
"It should not be protected in isolation from life"
Stating that only 2 or 3 percent of infected individuals die, Erkmen said, "Corona is a virus that has a fatal side, but it is not the case that everyone will die or everyone will get sick. This situation should not be turned into a health anxiety, when anxiety starts, the fear of getting sick or dying gets in the way of taking real precautions. When we look at the people in the markets, it looks like we are going to have a crisis, this is how outsiders perceive it. There are many people stocking dry food at home, what is the purpose of this? They think that by never leaving home they will avoid a major disaster. In modern times this is not possible because people need so much of what others produce. It is not possible to live for months on what is grown in the garden or bought from the market, you have to have bread, milk, cheese. If we don't go to work, life stops anyway, and then it becomes a big disaster. So people will go to work, they will use public transportation. It is necessary to calm down, there is no point in staying at home and waiting for this process to pass in isolation from the world."
"Constant washing creates problems, not solutions"
Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Erkmen said that he received questions about the corona virus from patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and continued his words as follows: "Those with this kind of disease have taken it to the extreme. Therefore, we can say that they do not need to take extra precautions. On the contrary, if they have OCD-like excessive washing, they have already broken their body resistance in their daily lives. They need to reduce their washing because while they think they are doing the right thing, they are increasing the level of danger for themselves. Those with panic disorder also engage in behaviors that prevent them from living their lives with the fear that something negative will happen every minute. 2 cases in a country with 80 million inhabitants is not an extraordinary situation. Diseases much more harmful than the corona virus are seen in hospitals, and since it is not popular, it does not attract anyone's attention. We live in a large country in terms of area and population, so the cases should not be considered abnormal."
"Health institutions should not be kept busy"
Erkmen stated that he has patients who share symptoms of the disease and continued his words as follows: "We warn them to consult the relevant specialists immediately. Those who have flu symptoms should definitely consult physicians, but we do not see the need to go to the hospital to see if my immune system has weakened. It is a difficult process to investigate whether the virus is present or not. At this point, the health system should not be pushed too much. If everyone runs to hospitals with such fear, our health system may not be able to keep up with the demand and experts from other fields may have to be shifted to that field for virus treatment. As a result of this situation, people with different diseases will receive incomplete treatment, and that is when the big problem will arise."
"Turkey is managing the process well"
Erkmen said that Turkey has been successful in protecting its citizens from the coronavirus outbreak, "As many scientists who are already thinking about this issue say, it is expected to lose its strength day by day and slow down in two months. We can say that our country has fought well against the virus despite everything. We did not allow the virus to exist and spread by taking the necessary measures in the first days. Some countries are experiencing big problems today because they did not take precautions. China, where it first emerged, was caught unawares, then Iran and Italy were caught unprepared and became the countries where the virus was effective. In fact, our public institutions are managing this process well. Public transportation vehicles are disinfected, warnings are shared, border entries have been kept under control since the first day and many measures such as these are being taken to prevent the spread of the virus."