How to cope with the quarantine?

These days we have to be home and wait with patience and hope to end the confinement as soon as possible. But it is in your power not to get frustrated and to avoid that the house falls. The first thing you have to do is remember that "”, That this situation is temporary and that little by little all our routines will normalize

Doses the information

It is not good that you are listening all the time about the Coronavirus and waiting for it. Can see the news once a day, but do not be aware of every death toll.

Make sense of it all

The confinement will end and the doors will open, what will you explain to others that you have done during the quarantine? In the whirlwind of day to day, what we usually lack is weather, and now, it is exactly what we have the most!Use it, learn new recipes, study a language, create scrapbooks, reorganize the house, get in shape…!

Take care of your body

There are many things that can be done from home to stay physically active: abs, exercise boards, yoga, Pilates to prevent your back from hurting ... Many online platforms offer free exercise sessions to do from home.

In MAPFRE also to avoid that your body aches these days due to the lack of movement. Also, remember that exercise helps us release endorphins that make us feel better and also facilitates rest.

Socialize and strengthen relationships

Take the opportunity to share quality time at home. Talk to your family members, parents, grandparents, children ... and delve into topics that perhaps you had never discussed. Sometimes we know more about the life of our idol, than about who we have next to us.

Also, fortunately the new technologies they are a very effective aid to combat the feeling of isolation. Video calls, chats, social networks ... They allow us to communicate with family members who are not at home and friends.

Develop your mind

Create cooperative and altruistic values. He understands confinement, not as an order that deprives us of freedom, but as a collective act and that thanks to that personal sacrifice, good is being done to others and to society in general. Although it is hard, staying home saves lives.

Create new routines

Keep schedules and routines throughout the day, set easy daily goals, watch your diet and sleep, and differentiate weekdays from weekends doing some extra activity, such as, for example, a special meal, a virtual concert, a game, etc.

This is even more important if there are children at home and we are teleworking. Together, make a schedule with pictures that show all the activities of the day. There should be educational, hygiene, leisure, technology, family activities ... and make sure that children understand well why they should not leave the house, not for fear of contagion but to protect people who have fragile health ( elderly or ill).

Psychological Effects of Confinement

Confinement can have negative psychological effects such as anxiety, stress, fear, frustration ... But it also has positive effects because we value health, we show solidarity and become more empathetic.

Positive psychological consequences

It is clear that confinement will leave us psychological consequences, but not necessarily all will be negative. If we learn enough about what is happening, we will emerge strengthened individually, socially and with improved services.

•  Health assessment: confinement will leave us reflections about how vulnerable our health is and how important it is to take care of ourselves.
• Solidarity with others: knowing close cases of infected and seeing the increasing number in the media, brings us closer to the idea of health as a collective good and on which we all have a responsibility. The health alert situation can be an antidote to the individualism that prevails today.
• Empathy with the stigmatizedBeing infected, being suspected of being infected or knowing someone who is, helps us understand how hard it is to feel stigmatized.

Negative psychological consequences

 Extending the quarantine for more than 10 days, increases the nervousness for all that confinement implies. The feeling of lack of control, see how our routines continue to be paralyzed or the lack of freedom can generate in us frustration, anger and. To overcome it, you must reorganize yourself and find a new way of functioning according to the new reality of isolation.

On the other hand, have plenty of time to think it can cause thoughts that anticipate the worst and irrational fear to appear in us. In an epidemic context, the mind often acts on impulse and we panic. This is what has happened, for example, with the purchase of food; It does not matter that the supermarkets do not have supply problems, we need to buy.

In the case of elderly people living alone and that they do not have much social life, prolonging the confinement can have serious psychological consequences. It should be borne in mind that these people make a social life precisely when they go out for a walk or when shopping. Quarantine can increase feeling of isolation that they already have in their daily lives.

The same goes for people who have previous psychological disorders such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias ... They can suffer much more in this type of situation.

While the psychological impact of lockdown is broad, substantial, and can be long-lasting, the psychological effects of not applying it and allowing the epidemic to spread could be even worse.

• • Confinement can have negative psychological effects and positive effects
  • It is important to maintain schedules and routines throughout the day. Set affordable daily goals, take care of your diet and sleep.
  • We can take the opportunity to share quality time at home. Learn more about parents, grandparents, children or partner.

Savia, MAPFRE's online platform, resolves your medical questions for free

, MAPFRE's digital health services platform, makes available of clients and non-clients of the company, for free, the possibility of chatting with the specialists in your medical chart.

At a time when everyone must stay at home, they are of great help to solve doubtsFor this reason, MAPFRE has launched this solidarity initiative.

Click on and consult your doubts with a specialist.

Mireia Galán

Specialist in Clinical Psychology and Family and Couples Psychotherapist

Advance Medical Consulting Psychologist