Coronakrisen stirs the emotions in all of us. According to Helena Hauge, who is a priest in David’s Church on Østerbro in Copenhagen, ‘is it right now totally natural to be afraid’.
Are you afraid, you take care, wash hands and keep distance. It is healthy.
“But if fear seizes one, is irrational. Maybe isolate it completely or spritter of her child’s fingers of 70 times a day.”
It is unhealthy.
Since prime minister Mette Frederiksen, the 11. march closed country, Helena Hauge as all the other priests failed to invite the beleaguered parishioners in the church.
In the bad church affairs Joy Mogensen, to the priests, to ‘think creatively in terms of how we as humans can turn hope in each other’.
It was Helena Hauge to put his phone number on Facebook. In the course of the last 10 days she has had ‘at least 15-20 conversations’, for there are many who mentally was live with coronaen.
According to international research, it is absolutely to be expected.
British scientists have in a new study, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, examined how people are affected by being in quarantine.
the Researchers have compared studies of previous epidemics, where sars, ebola and swine flu put people in isolation. The conclusion is that the quarantine can provide both immediate and long-term damage to the psyche.
the Two features most frequently noted in the investigated, was the discouragement and irritability. But also depression, stress, insomnia, PTSD symptoms, anger, and burnout follows right on the heels of a quarantine.
And the consequences can be measured up to three years after the isolation has ended, writes The Lancet.
the Priest Helena Hauge experience that, in particular, two groups are hard hit by the corona-quarantine.
The sick, which is enclosed. The healthy, who choose to close themselves inside.
She believes that especially the last group is hit hard, because they are fighting against the fear.
“And the fear to hamper the free expression, in spite of everything we have,” she says.
Also on the page sjaelesorg.now you can feel that people are pressured by the crisis.
On the site, anyone can anonymously chat with a priest. Ago coronakrisens beginning of the year, the associated priests tripled the number of online conversations.
It is especially two types of problems that arise, says Pernille Hornum, who is the leader of the sjaelesorg.now.
“They directly triggered by coronaen, is all about fear, loneliness and uncertainty.”
Typically, people are worried about how long the crisis lasts. They are uncertain of what to do in a transformed life, they have their work afterwards, and many older people are lonely, because they no longer receive visits.
another group, that writes, are those who suddenly have got the time to ponder over the ‘old’ worries or sorrows as loss and grief after divorce or loss, bullying or family conflicts.
“The existential sorrows and the concerns of the banks particularly hard on right now.”
suddenly, we have time and can’t avoid to notice how we have it, explains Pernille Hornum.
“Usually you can trade away from the problems, or let yourself be distracted from them. Now we are forced to label them – whether you want it or not.”
While the priests on the web offering anonymous advice, will Helena Hauge any time – in spite of the covid-19 – have eye contact.
“Are you ill, we talk on the phone, but otherwise I have had conversations face – to-face with good distance between us and spirits on the table.”
sometimes she has the urge to break all the rules and put a hand on someone else’s, for we have more than ever need comfort.
“People need contact. For right now ensomhedsfølelsen big.”
She can not eliminate the concern and anxiety, as coronaen has ignited in many, but ‘I can help to learn to live with it’.
Basically, it’s about to drop the control.
“In the old days, when the fisherman was at sea, said his wife, ‘it is the God of violence’, whether he came home again. On the way she put the responsibility from themselves. Today, we are extremely control-lump. We will manage everything.”
But we will have to accept that coronaen is out of our hands.
“I do not know whether vinduespudseren, who just coughed on me, infected me. The only thing I can do to live in it, is to put the control from me and accept the situation as it is.”
It comforts not to say: ‘It’s gonna go’ or ‘just have it over and done with’. The only thing that does, is to talk about the emotions that are quite real.
For what is ‘right feeling in the right place’ to be worried, scared or sorrowful.
“Right now, the survivors do not say goodbye at a funeral, and the relatives can’t visit their sick mother. It is a sadness,” says Helena Hauge.
