Feeling anxious?

It’s no surprise. Everywhere you turn these days, you hear scary news about the novel coronavirus.

Mental health experts say this anxiety is understandable, given humans’ fear of the unknown and how much is currently unknown about the virus known as COVID-19.

But one thing is known: there are steps we can take now to counterbalance the anxiety.

“We are dealing with all kinds of information today, from viruses to strikes to the environment, and it is normal for it to feel overwhelming,” says Rebecca Shields, CEO of the York Simcoe Canadian Mental Health Association.

Fear and anxiety are natural emotions, designed to help us protect ourselves from danger, she says.

But “over-intensive” anxiety is not helpful, adds registered psychotherapist Jian Yang.

Too much stress reduces our immune system and makes us more vulnerable to diseases, he says. It can also trigger unhealthy and harmful coping behaviour.

That’s why Yang volunteered to be one of 10 GTA-based Mandarin-speaking mental health experts offering emergency online counselling to hospital staff fighting COVID-19 in Wuhan and other cities of China.

The mental health teams were organized in late January by Cynthia Huang and Carmen Gao, two parents at Richmond Hill’s Holy Trinity School seeking to support the “frontier warriors” in the coronavirus outbreak.

Yang and Shields offer these tips to help rein in anxiety and maintain a positive outlook in the face of what some fear is a looming pandemic:

1. Be aware of your emotions. Have you been preoccupied with COVID-19 contamination? Do you experience restlessness, nervousness, palpitations, shortness of breath and discomfort while you think about it? Do you get nervous and over-guarded in public places and transit? Do you avoid certain racial populations related to COVID-19? Do you panic about maybe having COVID-19 while you have cold or flu-like symptoms? Do you have difficulty sleeping after hearing the news of a pandemic?

2. Ask yourself if your fear fits the facts, or if it’s exaggerated. If your anxiety does not lead to any effective protective action, consider whether the emotion is more harmful than helpful. Focus on positive facts and news such as sickness and death rates declining in Wuhan and China, the rate of recovery increasing and the relatively low death rate of the illness.

3. Be mindful of your information sources and stick with what is mainstream and trusted. Our anxiety may come from information bias or subjective assumptions instead of reality. If you check the data thoroughly, you would find the incidence rate is still low and mortality rate even lower — much lower than the mortality rate of many other diseases. Count your risk factors and protective factors (such as Canada’s heath system and screening, public education, less density).

4. Write down your negative thoughts, assumptions, beliefs, predictions and anticipations. Now check the evidence that proves or disproves these thoughts. Replace irrational thoughts, such as over-generalization and catastrophic thinking, with rational thoughts that better fit reality. Remember that thoughts are just thoughts, produced by our brain; they come and go. Don’t confuse them with reality.

5. Write down as many other positive possibilities you can think of, such as: the virus could disappear when the season becomes warmer, more effective medications and a vaccine should be accessible soon.

6. Try some general anti-anxiety behaviour: mindfulness, deep breathing, distraction, exercise, sleep and good nutrition, and talking with someone you trust. Keep a gratitude journal, writing down three things you are grateful for each morning or evening.

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7. Take a news break. Put away the phone and do something you enjoy. Get outdoors, move and breathe, and be in the moment.

If you find that your anxiety is impacting your life — if you are missing more than a random night’s sleep or are avoiding work or activities you enjoy — the Canadian Mental Health Association offers Bounce Back, a free, self-referral, supported self-help program with customized exercises and coaching to help you manage unhelpful thinking.

Visit BounceBackOntario.ca or call toll-free at 1-866-345-0224.