Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Brain Hospital Psychiatry Specialist Dr. Emrah Güleş talked about the mental problems that may arise during the period when strict quarantine measures started as a result of increasing Covid-19 cases and made important recommendations to protect psychological resilience.
Nowadays, when the pandemic is increasing its impact, experts state that situations such as the risk of catching the disease, not knowing when it will end, continuing quarantine at home and staying away from relatives and friends can lead to intense stress and anxiety. Experts recommend getting news about the pandemic from reliable sources and staying in contact with the social environment in order to protect psychological health in this process.
Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital Psychiatry Specialist Dr. Emrah Güleş talked about the mental problems that may arise during the period when strict quarantine measures started as a result of increasing Covid-19 cases and made important recommendations to protect psychological resilience.
Uncertainty causes the most anxiety
Stating that the coronavirus epidemic all over the world has also affected our country, Psychiatry Specialist Dr. Emrah Güleş said, "Uncertainty is one of the situations that arouse the most anxiety in people. We did not have much information about this virus that had just entered our lives, which created uncertainty. Our concerns about how we will protect ourselves and our family in this process, being at risk of contracting the disease, not knowing when the epidemic will end, experiencing uncertainty about the social and economic difficulties that may be experienced during the epidemic process can inevitably cause us to experience intense stress and anxiety. Apart from these, staying under quarantine at home, being away from our relatives and friends and being isolated are also among the reasons that cause stress and anxiety."
Stress causes many mental problems
Stating that various mental problems can occur in high stress situations, Güleş said that these include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorders and acute stress disorder.
Social media use should be limited
Reminding that the time we stay at home has increased in order to minimize contact with other people within the scope of quarantine measures during the pandemic, Güleş said, "As a result, we can say that there is an increase in social media use and television viewing times. We already know that people's use of social media and other media sources has gradually increased outside the pandemic period. This naturally reduces the communication of people living in the same house, and can lead to family problems and miscommunication, and sometimes even fights, even if we don't want to. It is not necessary to stop following these media sources completely, but it is important to set a certain limit to their use and to devote the rest of our time to ourselves and our family."
Spending time with family is beneficial
Pointing out that it would be especially useful to spend quality time with the family during this period, Güleş said, "A sense of belonging and trust can be reinforced through activities such as dividing work in the kitchen with family members, preparing meals, playing various games together at home, watching a fun movie together or chatting. It is good and meaningful to take care of the children during this time. Children should be listened to and allowed to ask questions. Children's questions should be answered in an age-appropriate way that they can understand. We should share our own feelings and thoughts, taking care not to worry them."
It is necessary to stay social in this process
Gülşen talked about what we can do to protect and improve our psychological health during the pandemic process:
"While following the developments and information about the virus, we can prevent excessive anxiety by following known and reliable news sources. Human beings are social beings, so we should stay in touch with our surroundings and communicate with our loved ones as much as possible. We should keep our daily routines as much as possible. We should make sure that our sleeping and eating times remain the same. We should take care of our self-care and not neglect it."
The mind should focus on different pursuits
Stating that creating various exercise plans that we can do at home during this period when our physical mobility is restricted can help us feel better, Dr. Emrah Gülşen concluded his words as follows:
"We can focus our minds on different pursuits. We can feel better by taking care of other chores at home, reading books, watching movies and TV series, doing activities that can be done at home in the rest of the time, and getting ourselves some hobbies. Finally, we should not hesitate to seek professional help if, despite all this, we do not see a decrease in our problems and these problems continue to disrupt our relationship with our work, family and other people and reduce our functionality."
