The crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and confinement has upset us all, to a greater or lesser extent. It is clear that some people are better able to cope with adversity while others require professional help at certain times to learn how to cope with difficult times.
The Union of Family Associations (UNAF) knows that. For this reason, this NGO decided to put into operation a free remote psychological care service aimed at supporting the emotional health of all those families directly or indirectly affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Babies and More has spoken with Carlos Abril Pérez del Campo, UNAF’s clinical psychologist and family mediator, to find out what problems families consult the most these days of confinement and what guidelines can help them overcome them.
“Confinement affects us all”
Different authors of studies carried out in previous pandemics confirm that prolonged periods of isolation in time lead in the long run to psychological consequences with the presence of symptoms of acute stress, anxiety, low mood, as well as exhaustion, detachment, irritability, insomnia, confusion and states of anger at the frustration and loss of the usual reinforcements.
All this is substantially increased in those individuals who previously had psychological problems, which places the person in a position of greater vulnerability to the disease.
This is how Carlos Abril describes the current psychological situation we are experiencing due to Covid-19.
“It is foreseeable that the circumstances to be faced will lead to emotional and personal adaptation problems for a time, and the impact they will have on families is a priority objective of UNAF. Hence, we use all the resources that we have available at the moment.”
To unify care, they have created an action protocol drawn up by professionals from the Complutense University of Madrid at the request of the Official College of Psychologists. “It allows us to establish a subjective assessment of the difficulties detected by the person who calls us based on the degree of concern or discomfort that they generate,” says the UNAF coordinator.
But it is also aimed at carrying out an exhaustive exploration to know your current circumstance and the impact on your life, in order to detect your risk factors and your available protection resources.
Very diverse family problems
The psychologist explains that, in general terms, the most common situations that families who have received care in the service go through “have been related to their own illness or that of family members, the records of employment regulation or the definitive loss of the job of work, the relationship difficulties suffered as a result of the tension generated by confinement “.
He also refers consultations for “the loneliness they have had to face in confinement without any company or the desolation of people who have had to face the difficult and painful task of accepting the final farewell of a loved one, in the current circumstances.”
As an example, so that we better understand the situations faced by people who ask for psychological help, he has told us about two specific cases:
The first of these is that of a father of a reconstituted family, who in the last five years has had to face a divorce, the loss of both parents and the dismissal of his job:
“The confinement situation has produced an increase in the feeling of sadness that has been invading him for some time together with a constant concern about the difficulty of being able to find a new job that allows him to recover his old life.”
Also tough is the situation of another father of a family, who has a daughter and his wife is five months pregnant. The week before the state of alarm was decreed, he lost his job. In addition, the couple has spent the illness confined to home. Explain what:
“After the first week of confinement, he began to have recurrent panic attacks along with an intense fear of going outside to go to the supermarket. He feels a lot of discomfort, great confusion and a certain fear of losing control. worried about the estrangement that has been created in his relationship with his wife and daughter. “
How to fight negative thoughts during the Covid-19 crisis?
Carlos Abril, UNAF family mediator, explains that his intervention process is aimed at supporting and facilitating the necessary resources so that a series of recommendations can be made effective and address the specific psychological difficulties of each person. These are their recommendations:
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The establishment of a plan of daily activities that they can maintain throughout the days without generating excessive stress, allowing a balanced distribution of time between the different tasks established.
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Do not expose yourself to excessive information. It is important to avoid overinformation, establishing specific times to find out about those news related to Covid-19, once or at most twice a day, without exceeding a maximum of approximately half an hour a day. It is also essential to avoid that all the conversations we have are related to this topic.
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Do not allow worries to invade all our time . For this, it is advisable to assign a moment a day (stress time) in which to look for solutions to the difficulties that concern us, trying to keep them at bay during the rest of the day.
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Take care of both physical and mental health by dedicating a daily time to physical exercise , while we practice activities such as diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation or mindfulness that help us combat the symptoms of anxiety.
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Maintain contact with family and friends , nurturing open communication with our loved ones, which allow us to express our thoughts and emotions with those who we know can listen and understand us. It is essential to take advantage of the sources of emotional support that each of us have.
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Exercising in mindfulness in the present moment , not allowing our thoughts to wander, practicing returning to the present moment every time the discomfort makes us aware of remembering past or future moments that are impossible to live.
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Combat anxiety generated by automatic anticipatory thoughts regarding situations whose future does not depend exclusively on us. We should not get caught up in the rumination that this type of thinking provokes. It is essential to focus on those issues that concern us and over which we can exercise true control , allocating a space of time to deal with them in our daily activities calendar.
For any query, the family that needs it can call 91 446 31 62 to specify a date for the first consultation and receive the necessary instructions that allow the videoconference to be carried out through a secure platform. We remind you that professional care is free.
Photos | iStock
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