Coronavirus Anxiety: Social Distancing Helps Stop the Spread

A lot of people are understandably anxious and upset about the looming spread of the novel coronavirus — called COVID-19 — in the United States. When faced with the unknown, with a scarcity of data, and disagreement among scientists about the likely infection rates within the US, anxiety appears to be an entirely appropriate emotion to have. But we can all help to stop the spread of the coronavirus, even if we’re not at particularly big risk for getting it or getting sick from it. It’s called “social distancing,” and it can help a great deal in keeping our national outbreak as low as possible. Vox created the handy graphic at the top of this article that demonstrates the limitations of any country’s healthcare system. A country only builds so many hospitals to serve its population, so it has only so much capacity to deal with a serious pandemic as COVID-19 has become. This graphic shows how it’s best to “flatten the curve” of the number of cases in a pandemic. By keeping the number low, it is hoped that the most serious cases can receive the medical attention they need in the healthcare system. We can all do our part to help keeping the number low. And in doing so, also help reduce our own anxiety surrounding this outbreak. Reducing Your Anxiety through Social Distancing By taking concrete, actionable steps, you can help reduce your coronavirus anxiety. The first is to start engaging in “social distancing̶...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Anxiety and Panic General Centers For Disease Control coronavirus anxiety COVID-19 social distancing Source Type: blogs