Seeker
The coronavirus virus (COVID-19) that appeared in December 2019 represents a real threat to the world’s population. The pandemic faces the threat of contagion of a disease before authenticity, unfortunately we have more fears than answers. For this reason, we have observed that other people who may have been in contact with the infection have been sent home or to a special center to deal with it. More recently, in some areas of the world and in our country, lump sums or components have been declared. limit mobility and reduce the spread of the virus. In the midst of this panorama, also the environment in the face of contagion of our own and others, in the face of the loss of our beings in danger and the option of not being able to lose ourselves as a component of a culture rooted in diverse cultures, in the face of the lower availability of fundamental resources and the imminent cutback in the finances of a significant component of the global population, as well as fear of discontinuity in a wide diversity of institutional, economic and educational processes. All these consequences are imaginable and seem unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Framing is a basic emotion, basic for survival, it is the maximum vegetal reaction to an object or scenario that leads our life to physical and/or mental integrity. Most likely, neither our ancestors nor other animal species existed due to the indisputable number of fish before the species that we count in this world, for example, competition between species (predators) and intraspecies (predators). . fight for territory, food, procreation, etc. ), natural disasters, etc. Therefore, we can interpret the environment that people see today as an adaptive and obligatory reaction to the virus, which will activate non-public protective behaviors and others, but do we perceive that certain behaviors are motivated by mine and put them at risk? our own integrity and that of others? How can you adapt to the pathology? The answers to those questions are some of the questions we talk about in this short essay.
El miedo tiene un gran impacto en el comportamiento. Una amenaza real desencadena reacciones distintivas de miedo o alarma, a través de respuestas autónomas (como acortamiento de la respiración, aumento de la presión arterial y de la frecuencia cardíaca), conductuales (congelamiento y/o sobresalto, y respuestas dirigidas de lucha, huida o evitación) y hormonales (la liberación de hormonas del estrés como la adrenalina y el cortisol), las cuales están altamente conservadas en términos filogenéticos, ya que se producen en todos los mamíferos, incluidos los humanos (Wodjat y Pape, 2013).
So the answer to the question is reflective: evolution has moved to human animals and to humans with the ability to be informed. We are informed that certain contextual cues allow us to anticipate real issues and respond accordingly. Likewise, the cues provided in the context can suppress a reaction from those around it when they provide safe conditions, and in this case, an organization can spend more time supporting its group, feeding it, solving problems, etc. , an interpretation of the existing contingency. It implies understanding that observable phenomena such as, for example, the upward curve of contagion or photographs of full supermarkets on the verge of disaster, are all symptoms of caution that lead others to think that contagion and deprivation are an increasingly likely cause. authenticity. The expected stories generate the environment and life, it is the ultimate goal as a more vague feeling of oppression and threat.
La intensidad de las respuestas de miedo y ansiedad estará mediada en cada caso por una compleja interacción entre los factores biológicos (predisposición genética) y ambientales (experiencias traumáticas). Las diferencias individuales en la expresión de estas emociones pueden ir desde una respuesta de miedo y ansiedad óptima para responder en proporción a la amenaza, hasta estados emocionales desproporcionados y prolongados (incluso irreversibles), experimentados como miedo y ansiedad generalizados excesivos, persistentes y/u omnipresentes (Wodjat & Pape, 2013). Cuando el miedo se generaliza a situaciones que no constituyen una amenaza real, entonces llega a ser patológico (Torrents-Rodas et al., 2013). Esto tiene como consecuencia que una experiencia desagradable con un estímulo o evento puede llevar a evaluar como peligrosa otras situaciones similares y, por lo tanto, a evitar una amplia variedad de estímulos y situaciones (Dymond, Dunsmoor, Vervliet, Roche, & Hermans, 2015). Esto constituye el preámbulo de los trastornos ansiosos, los que se encuentran entre los más prevalentes y debilitantes de los trastornos psiquiátricos (Olatunji, Cisler, & Tolin, 2007) y, en nuestro país, representan la tercera causa de años de vida perdidos por discapacidad o muerte (AVISA) en mujeres (Vicente, Saldivia & Pihán, 2016).
Before the probability of encountering danger, the environment and attitude can change escape and avoidance behaviors, it can be informed to avoid a possible threat, which also holds the key to survival. However, on some occasions, other people engage in excessive threat avoidance to compensate for a low probability of threat (Xia, Eyolfson, Lloyd, Vervliet, & Dymond, 2019). There are certain points that are called risk points for the presence of avoidance behaviors: the feeling of uncontrollability in the face of potentially harmful events and feelings leads to a primary moment and, therefore, to primary avoidance behaviors (Raines, Oglesby, Unruh, Capron, and Schmidt, 2013). Likewise, other people with a lower tolerance for insecurity and, therefore, more vulnerable to the progression of the environment or the control of the pathology, would possibly adopt exaggerated and rigid avoidance behaviors (Flores, López, Cobos & Vervliet, 2018a, 2018b). . ).
Un comportamiento que hemos podido observar frecuentemente desde el inicio del brote de Covid-19 en Chile y en el mundo, y que también fue motivo de críticas y reportajes durante el estallido social en el País el 18 de octubre de 2019, son las compras desmedidas de insumos de primera necesidad, como alcohol gel, papel higiénico, artículos de limpieza, agua embotellada, alimentos no perecibles, etc., en un patrón que podría asimilarse a lo que tradicionalmente se ha llamado acaparamiento, el que puede ser comprendido como una conducta de evitación (Raines, Oglesby, Short, Albanese & Schmidt, 2014) y por lo tanto, fundamentalmente relacionada con el miedo y la ansiedad. En su forma clínica, se ha observado que en el trastorno de acaparamiento (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), la severidad de los síntomas está relacionada con ataques de pánico recurrentes (Raines et al., 2014), elevada reactividad emocional, intolerancia a la angustia (Norberg et al., 2020; Shaw, Timpano, Steketee, Tolin y Frost, 2015) y a la incertidumbre, cogniciones relacionadas con el acaparamiento y temores sobre la toma de decisiones (Kyrios et al., 2018).
However, the brother of Covid-19 is indeed a measure for the physical and mental integrity of oneself and others, but nevertheless represents an ambiguous measure in the other facets of control, we say that we do not know if we are actually going to infect us. If the measures we need to take at the individual and societal level will be effective in controlling the spread, we cannot accurately expect to remain stuck on top of the pandemic, nor the large-scale consequences it will have on health, education, the economy, politics and the sin of etc. Consequently, we find ourselves facing a scenario of highly unexpected and uncontrollable prospective risk, two conditions that favor the appearance of anxiety and diverse psychologies (Mineka and Kihlstrom, 1978). A large number of studies show that speculation that is repeatedly experienced in adverse scenarios and is perceived as unlikely and uncontrollable leads to a feeling of uncontrollability of results, attitude and hopelessness (Wang, Zhang and ZhangArray 2017). Given this, organisms must be informed that there is no dating between their behavior and its consequences and, therefore, it does not make sense to do or seek to reposition circumstances, adding new scenarios in which the habit can have positive results, as long as they are acquaintances. as reporting depression (Overmier & Seligman, 1967; Seligman & Maier, 1967) and this is the basis of various mental problems, including depression (for a review, see Seligman, 1975; Maier & Watkins, 2005). . The means that cause the pandemic and the conditions that are configured as a cultural position for the progress of various psychologies, constitute a very vital threat to humanity like the disease caused by the coronavirus and all the consequences at a micro, macroeconomic and social level. .
Una revisión sistemática breve recientemente publicada en la prestigiosa revista británica Lancet, sobre el impacto psicológico de la cuarentena (Brooks et al., 2020), analizó estudios hechos en diez países que incluyeron personas que habían estado en cuarentena por SARS, ébola, influenza H1N1, síndrome respiratorio del Medio Oriente e influenza equina. La mayoría de los estudios revisados informaron efectos psicológicos negativos, incluidos síntomas de estrés postraumático, confusión y enojo. Los factores estresantes incluyeron una mayor duración de la cuarentena, temores de infección, frustración, aburrimiento, suministros inadecuados, información inadecuada, pérdidas financieras y estigma. Algunos estudios incluso sugieren efectos duraderos.No cabe duda entonces que la pandemia amenaza distintas esferas de nuestra vida de una manera que no es fácil de predecir ni controlar hasta ahora, lo que genera miedo e incertidumbre, condiciones que facilitan y aceleran comportamientos evitativos, como formas activas de regulación del miedo. Estos pueden resultar desmedidos como, por ejemplo, comprar sin pensar en dejar recursos que otros también necesitan para protegerse y proteger a los demás, o incluso exponerse a lugares repletos de gente sin considerar que dicha exposición supone mayor riesgo que no tener lo que supuestamente necesitan adquirir. Del mismo modo aumentan la probabilidad de manifestar conductas agresivas ante otros que ponen en riesgo nuestra integridad, por ejemplo, al violar la cuarentena o no usar mascarillas. Estas últimas pueden ser comprendidas como la activación del sistema de conducta de defensa ante un estímulo que supone un peligro inminente (ver Teoría de los sistemas de conducta: Timberlake, 2001). Lo planteado no supone una justificación de tales comportamientos carentes de altruismo y preocupación por los otros, sino más bien ofrece un punto de vista comprensivo desde la investigación básica, de situaciones que de otro modo resultarían inconcebibles en un contexto en que necesitamos justamente lo contrario, empatía, cooperación y solidaridad.
Finally, a scenario such as highlighting the role of science and wisdom to understand and address the crisis. For a position that briefly illustrated as the fundamental investigation of the environment, life, avoidance, unpredictability and uncontrollability, we allow ourselves to hear the phenomena underlying the behaviors that gave us incomprehensible moments and also how those phenomena can be the prolegome of psychology. and on others, they allow us to reflect on the clinical advances that have played a leading role in the survival of humanity, a point that is well illustrated by the identified psychologist Stephen Pinker in his book “In Defense of Enlightenment” published in 2018. During the greatest part of human history, infectious diseases have been the main cause of mortality and epidemics for millions of people, regardless of type. However, starting at the end of the 18th century, with the invention of the vaccine and the microbial theory, which repositioned vital conditions in the process of critical conditions for the spread of infections (hand washing, extension of drinking water and red sewers). , etc. ), millions of lives are saved. Thus, clinical advances in issues of protection and life expectancy, which every day are a repositioning in relation to the scenarios that we are experiencing today due to the existing pandemic.