PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND CORONA

Abstract

Covid-19 can be considered the most serious global health crisis to hit humanity since the Second World War. It has not only affected the health aspect, but also various aspects of economic, social, educational, political and even cultural life, resulting in high levels of stress and anxiety in a difficult test of our ability to adapt to the unknown. There is no doubt that the mental and psychic health of individuals has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and by the exceptional and unprecedented measures that restrict individual freedoms, such as quarantine, social distancing contrary to the social nature of human beings, as well as therapeutic and preventive protocols as a means of responding to the spread of the virus, which have caused and continue to cause psychological problems for individuals who do not respond positively to this crisis and who are in a fragile psychological situation. This article discusses the mental health effects of this pandemic, such as anxiety disorders, OCD, PTSD and depression, highlighting the main psychological and physical symptoms that can result from the fear of inter-individual transmission and quarantine. It also discusses the best ways and strategies for coping with this pandemic, as well as the most important psychological techniques that are part of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, including physical techniques such as relaxation and breath control, cognitive techniques such as cognitive reconstruction, as well as emotional techniques such as mindfulness, which help to mitigate the psychological effects and build psychological immunity for an effective response to the pandemic.