Family reunions, introspection, new passions… If the testimonies on the personal benefits of confinement are flourishing, can some French people now feel a rise in anxiety at the idea of deconfining themselves? Maintenance.
Contacted many times about the “trauma” that confinement was going to cause, Viviane Kovess-Masfety, psychiatrist and epidemiologist, now enjoys seeing the flourish of articles showing how much this period has allowed certain families and couples to to regain.
For its part, deconfinement raises many questions about everyone’s relationship to anxiety, in the context in which we live. Uncertainty, collective danger… The researcher and honorary professor at Paris-Descartes University agreed to answer our questions about the anxieties linked to the health crisis.
Why doctor: With the Covid-19, we talk a lot about “anxiogenic context”. What do we mean by that?
Viviane Kovess-Masfety: First, we must clearly distinguish normal anxiety from that which is pathological. Being anxious is part of the natural and functional human experience, since there are situations in which it is better to be anxious in order to react accordingly. Originally, anxiety is a reflex that helps us defend ourselves and adapt. For example, everyone is a little anxious about catching Covid-19, it’s normal. What is complicated is that anxiety tolerance is very different in different people. Many have a very high threshold and consider it the salt of their life: they like stress, it’s what gives them the impression of living.
Conversely, generalized anxiety is one of the psychiatric diagnoses whose criteria evolve very frequently. Thus, to draw the line between life anxiety and pathological anxiety, we can say that the person concerned is probably unable to function. If we can no longer live with it, we call it a disease. Then, in general, we must not believe that the fact that there is an external problem ‘aggravates’ people; there are even some that it ‘improves’ because it decenters them from their problems. They move on.
While the health crisis is still relevant, can the lifting of containment be a source of anxiety?
What is complicated in the distancing measures is that part of the population has integrated that, for them, catching the virus is not at all dramatic. So, we are in a society where many say to themselves: ‘why bother me?’ and decide to live normally. The difficulty is the collective: each person who breaks the barrier gestures increases the risk of dying of a person at the other end of the chain.
It is this thought that can be present in anxieties. Basically, it’s quite paradoxical. You are told: ‘be careful’, and on the other side: ‘it’s not that bad’. Result: either you take the anxiety of the group, which says: ‘it’s dangerous’, or you line up behind that which is individual, and which says: ‘not so much’. Somewhere, it’s scary to see the police checking our actions. We think it must be serious.
In addition, by being confronted with this collective virus, many people have understood that there are many things that we do not know. This question of the relationship to certainty also comes into play: I think that there are people for whom it is very complicated, and others for whom it is less so. This anxiety emerges in relation to the new coronavirus: this puts the finger on it.
How do you overcome your anxieties?
Deconfinement is an adaptation. We had to adapt to the confinement; now, we have to adapt to the déconfinement. Someone who does not have a pre-existing pathological trait can adapt to one then to the other, especially since the break is not too great since we keep the rules put in place during the confinement. Similarly, each situation will have its advantages and disadvantages depending on the life of each: for someone who lives alone, deconfinement may be more advantageous than confinement, for example.
Often, we adapt without too much difficulty. The first time we go to a supermarket during confinement, we are not at ease, we do not shop as usual. With the gloves, the masks, the distancing in the queue, no one was very comfortable. The fourth time, it seems almost normal. Then, after two months of confinement, it became a routine: the anxiety decreased.
I think that the deconfinement will give rise to the same phenomenon. The first time someone takes the metro in Paris, they will surely be paralyzed, looking everywhere that no one is near, and that everyone has their mask on. But I think the 10th times becomes a routine. Anxiety is an alert reaction, but when the situation has gone well ten times, you are no longer on the alert.
Faced with the fear of catching Covid-19, what are the keys to combating anxiety?
Generally speaking, the keys to dealing with anxiety are relaxation, quiet breathing, listening to music, and finding a routine. To take the example of the metro again, this can mean being on your phone and applying all the barrier gestures that reassure us a minimum. Also, it is important to analyze what the risks are, then to tell yourself that they are not the same for everyone: Covid-19 is not the plague.
Thus, if someone in good health has to go to work, he does not incur a serious risk, especially since it must be kept in mind that thousands of people come out of hospitals cured. It’s not like there’s a deadly disease in the air: the new coronavirus is ‘only’ annoying for a large part of the population. To fight against your anxieties, you have to have control of yourself and your emotions, take a little distance and realize that the worst that can happen in the metro is to fall ill. You have to see that the individual danger is in fact not very great: it is the collective danger that is problematic.
What will put an end to the anxieties inherent in the health crisis?
It’s the vaccine. We must not simply find it, but produce it, distribute it and inject it so that everyone is vaccinated. Experts estimate that it will take a year for this to happen; it depends on whether we find this delay long or not. But, fundamentally, I believe that repetition kills anxiety: at first it seems like a mountain, then when everyone is used to it, it will become a new way of living.
Then, one day, we will have the medicine or the vaccine. If we find a treatment that avoids the ‘tipping’ of the disease that leads patients to intensive care, it will be much less distressing to catch it. If it’s going to last a year, I think everyone will get used to it. With this new life, we will even see a new fashion accessory flourish: the mask.
Below, Professor Boris Cyrulnik’s interview on the effects of confinement:
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