Pandemic fatigue: what is it and how does it affect us?

Pandemic fatigue is a form of emotional exhaustion associated with crises such as the coronavirus.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been incorporating all kinds of habits into our daily lives to protect ourselves and reduce the number of infections. Masks, social distancing and frequent hand washing became everyday behaviors.

Over time, the fear from the beginning of the pandemic has been transformed into exhaustion, tiredness from living in a crisis that is lasting too long and that we have lived with a lot of stress.

People have started to be less careful in recent months even though we are already in the second wave of the pandemic. It seems that health measures are no longer taken so seriously, a mixture of mistrust towards the authorities and the weariness of not being able to recover our old normal life: it has arrived. pandemic fatigue. Let's see what it consists of.

What is pandemic fatigue?

After almost 10 months of pandemic, taking care of us of all the possible ways to avoid the contagion by COVID-19, not being able to do normal life and facing important economic losses, many people have started to become a bit careless and are no longer taking measures to avoid contracting the coronavirus as seriously..

Despite the data indicating that we are living through the second wave of the pandemic, many people are starting to think "if I didn't get it before, why should I get it now?".

The World Health Organization has started to talk about a new term to describe the psychological situation and the health laziness that many people are beginning to manifest: pandemic fatigue. It is the lack of motivation to follow protection and prevention recommendations, a lack of motivation that increases as time goes by.

According to experts, pandemic fatigue is a natural response to the crisis. Confinement, social distance, having to wear masks and not being able to do many of the formerly normal things has meant a profound change in our lives. As the crisis has dragged on, the longer it has been able to affect our mental health, the longer it has been able to affect our mental health.This has resulted in this situation of demotivation and disinterest in what to do to avoid the virus or how the situation is going in general.

The WHO has already conducted several surveys to find out what percentage of the population is showing the symptoms of pandemic fatigue. In the European case, it has been found that about 60% of the population report this problem as a consequence of the sustained and unresolved adversity that the coronavirus crisis is posing. that the coronavirus crisis is proving to be, with data indicating that the emotional toll is even worse than it was at the peak in March.

Symptoms of Pandemic Fatigue

As mentioned above, pandemic fatigue can be defined as the emotional exhaustion produced by the current pandemic situation, especially as a result of concerns about the restrictions and measures imposed to reduce COVID-19 infections. This fatigue leads to a loss of motivation to stay informed about the pandemic, and we may even stop following the pandemic. and we may even stop following preventive measures to stay healthy.

The main consequence of pandemic fatigue is that the population is relativizing the risk of COVID-19. In other words, more and more people do not consider contracting the virus to be so serious or do not believe that there is much chance of becoming infected, despite the fact that epidemiological data worldwide indicate just the opposite. As the population fails to follow the measures to avoid contagion or does not comply with them to the letter, these measures proposed and imposed by governments are losing their effect..

Although the idea of pandemic fatigue could be considered quite recent, a number of defining symptoms have already been proposed:

• Sadness and worry
• Frustration and irritability
• Sleep disturbances: sleeping much more or much less than usual
• Lack of concentration
• Nervousness
• Loss of motivation
• Frequent negative thoughts

Pandemic fatigue and stress

As we mentioned, in a pandemic as in any other crisis situation, it is normal that, in the long run, there will be a loss of interest and a loss of motivation. and moods are low with depressive symptoms. If the crisis is very long, it is normal that the population begins to take the situation less seriously, although they do not stop living it with concern and their mental health is affected.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the most common feelings were fear, because we did not know how events were going to evolve; resignation, seeing how all our plans and lifestyle were crumbling; and surprise, since practically no one imagined at the beginning of 2020 that we were going to experience a long global pandemic.

However, as the months have passed, the initial fear has been replaced by fatigue and a certain carelessness, combined with anger as people are fed up with having to cut back on social contacts, especially now that the holidays are approaching.especially now that Christmas is approaching.

But although various feelings and positions have changed throughout the pandemic, it has been one emotion that has been with us all the time: stress. In fact, stress has been the cause of the pandemic fatigue we are currently experiencing.

Stress is a mechanism that is triggered when a person experiences a highly demanding situation, in which he/she has to put a lot of physical and mental resources and becomes tense trying to overcome the problem he/she is facing in the best way possible. If the problem that awakens this response is maintained for a long time, the person is wearing out physically and mentally, the person wears out physically and mentally, causing him/her to make more mistakesIf the problem that triggers this response is maintained for a long time, the person becomes physically and mentally worn out, making him/her make more mistakes and become more vulnerable to the damage that this situation may cause him/her.

In our case, the problem has been the pandemic, which has not yet been solved. We have lived under stress for the last 10 months, a stress that has combined with other more personal stresses that we had before, becoming a real time bomb for our mental health. It is a vicious circle: the longer the stress lasts, the more fatigue there will be and, consequently, the more tiredness we will feel.Consequently, the more fatigue, exhaustion and irritability there will be, together with less desire to comply with health measures.

How to avoid it?

Governments and health authorities are in the obligation to avoid pandemic fatigue in the population by applying measures, educating the public and taking sufficient prevention with the intention of making sure that people do not take too lightly the great danger that COVID-19 has become.

With this in mind and recommended by the WHO in Europe, governments should consider the following to avoid the effects of pandemic fatigue.

• Identify and understand why the population is experiencing pandemic fatigue.
• Engage the population as part of the pandemic solution.
• Enable normal life while reducing the risk of infection.
• Identify what difficulties the population is facing because of the pandemic.

We must understand that the less seriously we take protective and preventive measures, such as wearing masks, washing our hands frequently, going out only for the essential and reducing social contacts, the more vulnerable we will be to COVID-19.. Likewise, to prevent this situation from occurring, we should follow the following recommendations that will help us not to feel pandemic fatigue and, therefore, not to stop being responsible for our health and that of others.

• Sleep between 6 and 8 hours a day.
• Have good eating habits and eat healthy.
• Exercise every day.
• Avoid overexposure to too much COVID-19 news.
• Practice relaxation techniques, breathing, meditation and/or yoga.
• Respect social distance when going outdoors.
• Opting to contact family and friends online rather than meeting face-to-face.
• Accept that you are stressed and turn to a professional.

But most important of all is to educate about stress, which is the main risk factor for not havingThe main risk factor for developing not only pandemic fatigue but also any other psychological problem. By properly treating stress and acquiring strategies to cope with it, we are obtaining an important protection not only against pandemic fatigue but also against the virus, since, as we were saying, the less we let our guard down, the less likely we are to become infected.

We must understand that going to a psychologist is not a bad thing, and even less so now that we are living in such a stressful situation, comparable only to the Second World War. The fact that everyone is going through the same thing does not mean that the person who asks for help is weak, but rather the contrary, he or she is a strong person who seeks to stay healthy and survive this pandemic that is doing so much damage economically, socially, healthwise and psychologically.

Bibliographical references:

• García, M. (2020). Covid pandemic fatigue: what are its symptoms and how to overcome it. Spain: medical editorial.
• Chavarrías, M. (2020). Pandemic fatigue; what it is, how it manifests itself and how to treat it. Spain: elDiario.es.
• Uricare, J. (2020) Pandemic fatigue: what is it and how to treat it? Venezuela: eldiario.