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Uncertainties and insecurities regarding the pandemic have affected the mental health of thousands of Brazilians.
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The markers are for a patient in critical condition: Brazil is sick, and it is not just Covid.
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“We are experiencing a new wave of mental illness. It is a new shock, it is a new stressful situation. So when we talk about a new wave from Covid, there is also a new wave of risk for mental health ”, reported the psychoanalyst Vera Iaconelli.
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Wherever it goes, the virus leaves some sadness and concern for the future, but in Brazil, doctors and psychologists say that the wave of psychic diseases is another epidemic, which grows in parallel with Covid. Nowhere else in the world has the diagnosis of anxiety and depression soared, according to a study by Ohio University in partnership with universities in 11 countries. We suffer more than the others because, in Brazil, the pandemic is slow to subside, conclude the researchers.
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Ricardo Ricci Uvinha, coordinator of the study, which in Brazil was done by Unifesp and USP, explains:
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“Countries that responded quickly, such as Singapore, brought a certain comfort situation to the population, in terms of information. While countries that took a long time to give an answer, such as Brazil, brought this situation of vulnerability, with respect to uncertainty and the perception of the disease ”.
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The lack of a horizon for the end of all this can become a symptom.
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“Today I am unable to enter a market, if someone is close to me behind I go out, leave things and go out. I can’t stay in environments for a long time with a lot of people. You see the people nearby dying and then you have the notion that your life is fragile and that you can die tomorrow. It suffocates, it gives a trembling in the heart. For those who are passing, it is very real, it is very strong, it is not that simple, ”said IT analyst Joyce Anjos França.
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The infectologist Álvaro Furtado da Costa sees patients with anxiety attacks every day:
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“Chest pain, sometimes feeling short of breath, oppression in the chest area. So, sometimes, a classic anxiety condition that the person thinks he is starting to have symptoms of Covid-19. At Covid, it is usually a progressive condition, which can get worse, accompanied by other signs. In the anxiety crisis, you take a medication to take the patient’s anxiety, then the shortness of breath passes immediately ”.
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Shortness of breath as a symptom of Covid is a consequence of the virus reaching the lungs – inflamed, they do not have the same capacity to capture oxygen from the atmosphere. Wheezing in an anxiety attack, on the other hand, comes from a lack of control of the neurological system. The amygdala, located in the deepest part of the brain, generates an alert as if it were facing a threat. The answer is a combination of cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. The mind becomes a breeding ground for negative and irrational thoughts and fear. But there is a cure:
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“Sometimes you can’t change the situation, but the fact that you can talk about it, and see with the other, you understand makes all the difference. So, yes, we have to seek support. This is something that the World Health Organization has said since the first day of the pandemic: ‘Look for situations and professionals to share the suffering.’ But not everything is professional. We can have this within the domestic sphere, with friends ”, said psychoanalyst Vera Iaconelli.
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Joyce improved with virtual sessions of volunteer psychologists. But, really happy, “I think that only when everyone gets vaccinated, when there really is some kind of stability in that. I think that everyone who goes through this or who went through will actually be able to keep their hearts warm, keep their hearts well ”.
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