Who is not afraid of coronavirus?
Only hypochondriac people are afraid of the virus? No, conversely, they are not the most affected by fear or even the panic that can take hold of individuals faced with the Covid-19 epidemic. “They are so preoccupied with their own troubles and symptoms that the new coronavirus seems to them little compared to what they feel every day,” explains Michèle Declerck, clinical psychologist specializing in hypochondria in Ouest- France. “The more moderate hypochondriacs are above all concerned with their health, unlike people who are just very worried about the epidemic, who are also concerned about those around them.”
But the situation induced by the arrival of the coronavirus is at the very least anxious. Nathalie Hanot is a psychologist, specializing in bereavement and life fractures. The specialist unraveles for us what is not, according to her, a wind of collective panic but a more or less developed individual fear which comes from a collective non-control of the situation.
What scares the most about this epidemic: its exponential power of contamination, the globalization of the epidemic, the predictions of a stock market crash and economic recession, the fact that it could potentially affect us and our loved ones ?
What makes the most talk and feeds fantasies is non-control: figures first, which increase exponentially, information then which goes in all directions and sectors. It is no longer just public health that is affected, it is the entire economy. However, in principle, the human being lives with a basic confidence in life, which makes us put into perspective the uncontrollable external facts: for example, not the plane that I am going to take is not going to crash, in a way . It is this basis that allows us to live and be in action. However, here basic security is affected and the more you lose control, the more the fear increases.
Do you think everyone is finally afraid of something about this epidemic?
Yes, because everything is there to feed the worst fantasy. (…)
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