Written by: Laurence Nicholson, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As we move towards lifting restrictions around the pandemic and ‘open the curtains,’ as it were, to look outside at the big wide world, does it seem a bigger and scarier place to you?
Recently I have had people coming to me to talk about how they are worried about leaving the safety of their homes as we prepare to re-engage with social activities, albeit in a somewhat controlled and different way than before.
What has been worrying was that it became clear the feelings were less about the lockdown restrictions, which have themselves created a sense of fear of mixing with strangers in case one is a carrier, but more about actually leaving the cocoon of safety which is the home.
The neural connections of the risk to the cause have been re-routed, but not in a good way.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) uses the principle of an ‘activating event’ (A) initiating a 'behavior response' (B) based on a previous experience or learning, leading to a 'consequential outcome' (C), and replacing the neural association or pathway linked to that previous experience or learning, with a better one which will result in a more positive outcome and an improvement in our view on life and our environment.
We can make these changes unconsciously, too, as strong emotional responses such as fear can affect the way we react. I am seeing the start of a pattern where many of my clients are becoming so fearful of 'catching the virus' from other people that they avoid going outside altogether. But when challenged on what they are fearful of, they are associating their 'going outside' with their anxieties, instead of their 'failing to avoid a situation which could lead to infection.'
Their neural-association-shift has potentially set them on a path of developing panic disorders, a condition of which is agoraphobia, which is actually a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, or that help wouldn't be available if things go wrong and not as people tend to think, simply a fear of open spaces.
If you feel yourself experiencing such a symptom, there are some things you can do to reduce this anxiety and to keep the 'activator' where it originates, allowing you to understand the cause and implement some strategies for minimizing the effects on your lifestyle.
Consider, instead of associating the 'outside world' with the risks, think about the circumstances under which contraction occurs, like:
touching hard surfaces and then touching your face,
being within 8 or so meters of a carrier when they sneeze or cough directly at you, etc.,
Then develop ways to avoid such situations. These can be such strategies as:
planning specific directions for your journeys,
going at less busy times,
having alternate routes to take should unexpected crowds appear, and
being mindful to avoid touching hard surfaces as much as possible and carrying and applying anti-bacterial gel to your hands after doing so, if it was unavoidable.
These tools should keep the 'activator' focused as the situations which carry the risk and not allow it to expand to an 'all-or-nothing' type of flawed thinking ("I can't go outside because it is not safe"), commonly associated with depression, and anxieties which tend towards depression, and therefore keep your behavior (reaction) appropriately focused on positive ways to avoid the specific situation which carry the most risk.
One word of caution, though. Be aware and mindful of the possibility that behaviors such as constantly applying anti-bacterial gel to your hands after each time you touch a hard surface could become so habitual that it strays into the obsessional and a form of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), which might be a good thing under current circumstances, but will need to be addressed at a later date, should it become something which impacts your everyday behavior.
If you do this, it will help keep things in perspective and help prevent fear and anxiety, creating a prison of your own making.
Be sure to seek help if you feel you are already suffering from this, and encourage anyone you know to do so if they exhibit such symptoms.
This way, we can all stay safe in our emergence from our safety shells and get back to being the social beings we are, relatively unscathed.
Laurence Nicholson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Laurence Nicholson is the CEO and founder of the N Cubed Group, My Better Life – Mind Coaching, and Exec Mental Health Solutions, through which he works with both Corporate clients and individuals, to improve and optimize mental health, performance and resilience, in order to realize measurable improvements in business and personal productivity and decision making.
A Mind Coach, certified as a Corporate Mental Health Facilitator, holding 'Distinction' grade certifications in Life Coaching, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychoanalysis, Depression Counselling, Anger and Aggression Management Counselling, Criminal Psychology, Forensic Psychology, and Corporate Wellness Coaching, Laurence is also trained in Corporate Coaching and Mentoring, Behavioural Analysis, and to expert level in non-verbal deception detection and analysis.
He has spent over 35 years working across corporate environments, as both a consultant and leader, and when he was first sent abroad for work way back in the 1990’s, he became fascinated by how different people and cultures think and behave in different ways under the same conditions, and quickly became addicted to immersing himself within local environments, in order to get a true experience of thought processes and event-behavior associations.
Human psychology and behavioral patterns became his passion, and he used his corporate consulting work as a way to enable him to travel extensively and to study wide and diverse behaviors, and investigate the ‘how and why’ of our brain’s processes, and more importantly the impacts of stress and change on people, universally.
His business education and experience as an advisor and consultant in procurement, finance, law, information technology, organizational change and executive management, combines with his life experiences and numerous culturally immersive experiences from working in over 14 countries around the world, to provide what his clients consider as a unique appreciation of their individual circumstances.
Laurence aligns himself with Jungian psychodynamic theory, with its spiritual element, and supports this as a certified and attuned Reiki Master Teacher and a Certified Meditation Teacher.
