Coping with anxiety about coronavirus Let's Talk About CBT

This is an understandably stressful time and it's normal to feel worried. What can we learn from CBT for health anxiety that might help us with feelings of anxiety during the pandemic? In this short bonus episode, Dr Lucy Maddox interviews Dr Jo Daniels from Bath University, about things we know are likely to help. 
 
Show Notes and Transcript
Read an article by Dr Jo Daniels on how to stop anxiety about coronavirus spiralling out of control here: https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-to-stop-the-anxiety-spiralling-out-of-control-133166
Another article about panic here: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/truth-about-panic
And this about how it's normal to feel worried:  https://www.ft.com/content/d6c65a50-6395-11ea-abcc-910c5b38d9ed
BBC piece on protecting your mental health at this time:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51873799
BABCP: www.babcp.com
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Transcript
Lucy: Hi, I’m Dr Lucy Maddox and this is Let’s Talk About CBT. This is a podcast brought to you by the British Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies.  

This is a bit of an unusual episode. I’ve come to Bath University to interview Dr Jo Daniels who has experience in researching health anxiety in relation to medical conditions. There’s obviously a great deal of worry around at the moment, understandably, in relation to coronavirus.  

I’ve come to ask Jo about how we can look after our psychological wellbeing as well as our physical health. The information that Jo talks about is based on cognitive behavioural therapy principles for anxiety. Obviously there’s no evidence base for this in relation to coronavirus in particular, but really health anxiety in relation to any physical illness has some very similar features, so we hope that this advice can be helpful.  

Jo: My name is Jo Daniels and I’m a senior lecturer in clinical psychology and also a clinical psychologist working in health.  

Lucy: Could you say a bit about the work that you’ve done that’s relevant to our reactions to the coronavirus pandemic? 

Jo: The research that I’ve done so far is focused on health anxiety and distress in medical conditions. I do some work in the emergency department and think about why people keep coming back in and it’s usually to do with anxiety rather than pain. I’ve also worked in health anxiety in complex conditions such as Addison’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, also stroke, looking at how important anxiety is in both emotion and physical experience.  

Lucy: Fab. I mean it’s really understandable that people are feeling worried at this time because there’s loads of stuff around about Covid-19 and about what we should be doing about it. What advice would you have about how we can avoid spiralling out into panic about what’s happening? 

Jo: I think the first thing to say, which feels quite important, is it’s very, very normal to have a fear response, to feel anxious because this is a threat really and that’s the way that our brains are interpreting it, as a threat. Important to just accept that we’re all a little bit worried at the moment and we’re really in it together.  

In terms of the things that we can do help ourselves, it’s a digital age, so a lot of people are accessing various sources of media and information at the moment. Thinking about where the notifications are essential, thinking about the sources of information that we access, where some of the new stories are designed to be alarmist.  

Keeping perspective is really, really important and we can do that in a number of ways. So keeping in touch, especially if we’re moving into having to be at home, we need to be in touch with people to keep perspective and also to keep ourselves happy.  

Also trying to stay calm. It’s really important that we go about our normal daily business as much as we can. Things are going to change over the