The Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a massive impact on our overall wellbeing and will continue to have for some time. Many people experience heightened levels of anxiety, which are linked to how our bodies react to danger. This is expressed by a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response and is one of the tools our body uses to protect us from danger. When we feel threatened, the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response is automatically triggered, and several physiological changes in our body prepare us to either confront, flee, or freeze from the threat.
The anxiety symptoms experienced are varied and may include the following presentations:
- Fixation upon the outcome of events
- Restlessness and difficulty in concentrating
- Rapid heartbeat and breathing
- Sweating, nausea and stomach upset
- Feeling dizzy or lightheaded
- Tight or painful chest
- Numbness and tingling sensations
- Unreality or bright vision makes our environment looks less real
- Heavy legs
- Choking sensations
- Hot and cold flashes
It is important to note that some levels of anxiety are normal. We all experience these daily and they have an important function to ensure our survival. However, with the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people will have experienced heightened anxiety levels on a regular basis, which is invading the quality of their life. For example, going shopping may have become exceedingly difficult and leading to feeling under constant threat. This may result in staying at home and thus increase feelings of loneliness and isolation. In addition, prolonged and ongoing anxiety responses can lead to excessive anger, continued high stress levels, or other problems, and it might be time to intervene to reduce the potential of chronicity and longer-term psychological difficulties. At MTS Psychotherapy we are able to offer psychological support when experiencing a range of psychological symptoms which are preventing you from enjoying your life in general as well as supporting you to make necessary changes to adapt to living with the Covid-19 pandemic. If you need psychological support and want to discuss this further via a confidential telephone conversation, why not get in touch today on http://www.mtspsychotherapy.co.uk/.
Manuela Surgeon,Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
MTSpsychotherapy at Beehive Healthcare
August 2020
