Effects of COVID-19 on Stress
The coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan and rapidly affected the whole world. The fact that the epidemic made a great impact on the whole world has become an element of anxiety and fear for people. All health institutions were inexperienced and anxious in the face of the effects of this virus and the virus that the world has faced for the first time. For this reason, anxiety, intense stress, and feeling of insecurity arose in the public. Before long, more detailed information was obtained about its contagiousness and the ways of its spread and public awareness began to be raised. After a while, it was revealed that there were differences in the effects of COVID-19 disease depending on factors such as age, gender, and health history. While young patients can overcome the disease with mild symptoms, it has been stated by experts that it affects people over 60 years of age with chronic diseases such as lung, diabetes, and blood pressure. Considering the high spreading power of COVID-19 and its threat to life, struggling with uncertainties aroused fear and high anxiety in people’s life.
One of the biggest triggers of the emotional-state conflicts experienced was the measures taken due to pandemic conditions. The process was out of the ordinary and everyone was told to stay at home. In connection with this situation, people have had difficulties in coping with the conditions and adapting to the process. There have been major shocks on business models, education models, economic conditions, and social structure worldwide. For people who spend most of their day outside, it has been a challenge to control all work from home. Especially in the field of education, there has been a great loss of motivation in students due to pike and stress. Similarly, disruptions occurred in production facilities, employers and employees faced major problems. According to Individual differences and changes in subjective wellbeing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic of the article, which sets an example for the operational stress theory discussed in also, individuals constantly evaluate the events they experience and their interactions with the environment according to their personal goals, values, and beliefs. In the phase of getting used to changing conditions in pandemic conditions, people have entered into such an evaluation. As explained in the article, people make a threat assessment and see that they are in danger of loss and damage by seeing what they can do under conditions. This stage is the primary appraisal. In combating this process, individuals in the secondary appraisal, which is called challenge assessment, should consider that they can gain personal gains while activating their physical and psychological energy (Zacher & Rudolph, 2020).
As a result, people should improve themselves in using functional stress assessment and effective coping strategies for stress control in such extraordinary situations and conditions, such as the COVID-19 disease-induced pandemic process. Instead of feeling inadequate and evaluating the situation outside of their control, people should find methods to increase their personal well-being and produce solutions, as negative feelings and thoughts are sleep problems, aggression, digital addiction, substance addiction, etc.
