THE REAL PANDEMIC — THE FEAR VIRUS

From: L. Michael Hall
2020 Neurons #11
March 12, 2020

While the coronavirus (covid-19)  is a new and unknown medical problem, and like the flu and other  viruses, it is to be dealt  with intelligently.  The real pandemic that  we’re facing today, however, is the pandemic of fear.   What we know today  is that  the great majority  of people who will catch the virus will recover. That’s been the case in China.

The real pandemic is not even fear.   Fear is a good  healthy emotion when there is something truly threatening and dangerous.  Fear motivates us to take  precautions.  In this case, washing hands regularly, social distancing, staying healthy, etc.   Fear, however, becomes unhealthy when it is unrealistic and exaggerated. And fear becomes toxic and dangerous when we are fearing fear.   With healthy fear, the energy that  the emotion of fear evokes gives you something to do —a way of directing your energies to do what  you can.

With unhealthy fear, the energy that  is evoked has nowhere to go except to your mind, your emotions, and your body.  You become fearful  of yourself, your experience, and all sorts of concepts— like the future. This is what  has been happening— mostly thanks to the media who puts it front and center 24/7.  People are fearful  of what  the coronavirus means, or could  mean, and that  has led to a lot of panicking.  It has led to runs on goods at grocery stores, the sell-off of the markets on Wall Street, cancellations on traveling, non-medical people wearing masks (which does nothing), etc.
 

What happens when you fear fear, when you become fearful, anxious, worried, and apprehensive about what  could happen? You enter into a trance state of fear which then enables you to see fearful  dangers and threats everywhere. You color your perspective with a dark fear that  makes you imagine the worst, feel paranoid, and invent conspiracy theories. With the feeling  of fear driving your psychology, you exaggerate real problems, personalize the danger, forget the actual statistics, awfulize, and develop a dark tunnel  vision.  All of that, in turn, creates psycho-somatic problems— headaches, ulcers, asthma, etc.

The panicking that  happened during the Great Depression led Franklin D. Roosevelt to utter  the famous words, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”  He made that  statement in his inaugural statement in 1933  as he also described the problem with unreasonable fear.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that  the only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror  which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met  with that  understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.  And I am convinced that  you will again give that  support to leadership in these critical days.”

While realistic fear can  be healthy and useful, unrealistic fear generates self-created problems. Then, as people panic— the panic  itself gives people yet one more  thing to fear.   Investors, fearing the financial panicking, themselves panic  which then  amplifies the panicking.  Like little children imagining the shadows are monsters hiding in the closet— so we are creating all sorts of monsters which only amplifies the panic  of fear.   Add partisan politics to the mix as many are doing, and you have a perform storm of panic  about panicking.

What’s a better approach?
∙     Remind  yourself of the statistics—80% will recover quickly, 20% will have some complications, and the 2% with immunity-deficiency, resperatory problem will die.
∙     Stay calm  and cool, prepare, don’t panic.
∙     Don’t empty the shelves at the grocery store.
∙     Wash hands regularly.
∙     Eat lots of fruits and vegetables for the required nutriments.
∙     Realize that  this too will pass.
∙     If you’re under  60 and no underlying health problems— go for a trip.
∙     Set aside a 3 to 6-months emergency fund so you can  easily handle the lack of employment for that  period  of time. (See Inside-Out Wealth).

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