After resuming work and production, I feel a little lethargic, and sometimes worry, anxiety and even insomnia because of the recurrence of the epidemic. Is this normal? How to adjust psychologically? What can we do to prevent mental burnout? On the evening of the 10th, the tenth lecture series of “Public Health Talks” specially invited the chief physician Xie Bin, secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, to bring a psychological healing to citizens and friends and light up the “green code of the mind”.
Facing “psychological stress” and starting active healing
During this period of time, some people feel that their psychological state has changed a lot, often Small things make waves, and people become sensitive and vulnerable. From a psychological professional point of view, is this normal? Xie Bin analyzed that we are experiencing the new crown epidemic together. The Omicron strain has strong concealment and strong transmission power, which not only causes huge pressure on prevention and control work, but also puts pressure on people’s psychology, which may cause people to have a mentality in the epidemic. Imbalance, depression, etc.
In his opinion, this epidemic has constituted a kind of social and psychological stress. Facing the same stressor—the epidemic, there have been various mental imbalances, and there are many commonalities among them. There is also “contagion” between them. You know, emotions are also “contagious”. Emotional abnormalities include anxiety, depression, tension, anger, burnout, etc. Some people also behave abnormally under the influence of emotions, for example, they are easily impulsive or withdrawn. A very small number of people may experience serious conditions such as psychological disorders, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep disorders.
Entering the current stage of normalized epidemic prevention and control, protecting mental health cannot be ignored. Xie Bin analyzed that “psychological stress” should not be avoided but should be faced. From a psychological point of view, when people’s living conditions and social environment suddenly change, they need to mobilize more physical and mental resources to adjust and adapt in order to cope better. At this time, if you want to avoid the occurrence of psychological imbalance, you should learn to change your subjective cognition, self-regulate emotional responses, improve psychological resilience, and carry out active healing work for your own mental health.
Seize key points and enhance “self-efficacy”
So, how can citizens be more active in self-adjustment? Admittedly, stressors are similar, but individual emotional responses are different. Xie Bin suggested that ordinary citizens can remember two sets of data:
The first set is the two numbers “3”, usually about 3 weeks in the face of stressors, emotions will explode or adapt, in other words, Often the most uncomfortable time may be around the 3rd week; in addition, most people can basically adapt to it slowly around 3 months, and will form a habit. So after 3 months, if there is another major adjustment, a new round of adaptation process to “unaccustomed” may be activated.
The second set of data is related to the proportion of the population, which is two “1/3”. First, under major stress, about 1/3 of the population will feel greater psychological pressure, and only about 1/3 of the population will continue to suffer from psychological imbalance for a long time. So, for most people, don’t worry too much, it can be a smooth ride.
As for re-adapting to the new rhythm of life and work, Xie Bin believes that the key point is to improve “self-efficacy”. This is a concept in psychology. “How much confidence do you have about things you can’t control? How much confidence can you control? This is self-efficacy.” Xie Bin said that citizens can improve their self-efficacy in many ways. For example, to deal with a variety of work tasks after resuming work, it is recommended to start from the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the complex, and proceed step by step; in team work, it is necessary to break down tasks and carry out team collaboration; after completing the work, don’t forget to praise in time to enhance motivation , and constantly improve the “self-efficacy”.
Fighting burnout, “decompression + energy boosting” injects “psychological power”
At present, we still have to face sporadic outbreaks, and we must cooperate with Nucleic acid testing or implementation of regional control measures. Facing the psychological burnout that may occur in the normalized epidemic prevention and control, Xie Bin offers advice for the citizens: may wish to make targeted adjustments from the four aspects of decompression, energy enhancement, empathy, and sharing.
“The first thing is to decompress yourself. You must see that the whole society is working together to optimize various epidemic prevention measures as much as possible. So even if you encounter a new situation, you should tell yourself ‘it’s okay, you can think about it’ We will have more scientific and standardized epidemic prevention procedures and countermeasures to reduce personal pressure.” Xie Bin said.
In addition to “decompression”, it can also “enhance energy”. Since many things are unpredictable, what we can do is to improve our ability to prevent epidemics, learn knowledge and skills of epidemic prevention, improve “mental resilience”, and prepare ourselves both in action and mentally.
In addition, Xie Bin suggested that everyone should learn to improve social empathy, especially for the weak and those who are burdened, and give them as much help as possible. Finally, try to actively communicate, expand your social circle, and actively share your feelings.
“If we say that increasing energy and decompression is to reduce the overall stress level, empathy and sharing are to dilute the level of stress we feel and reduce the weight. In this way, the stress will be distributed a lot. Xie Bin added that generally speaking, people who are more thoughtful have the personality traits of pursuing perfection, and they can take the initiative to seek help from professional institutions when necessary, and don’t “carry” it by themselves.
Author: Tang Wenjia
Editor: Su Zhan
*Wenhui’s exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.