{"id":30324,"date":"2020-03-27T10:03:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T16:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=30324"},"modified":"2024-05-13T09:29:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T15:29:21","slug":"how-to-tame-fight-or-flight-responses-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/how-to-tame-fight-or-flight-responses-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the coronavirus pandemic triggers such deep fears and how we can calm ourselves down"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><figure id=\"attachment_30325\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30325\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30325\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny.webp\" alt=\"man breathing with eyes closed, a way to tame fight-or-flight to coronavirus.\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny.webp 800w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny-768x513.webp 768w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny-150x100.webp 150w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095508\/Getty-ethnic-guy-breathing-tiny-200x134.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30325\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We can manage fight-or-flight thinking during the coronavirus pandemic and other stressful times. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d isn\u2019t just a catchy tune from 1977; it\u2019s the essential driving force for humans. Our brain has a powerful system constantly watching out for danger to keep us safe.<\/p>\n<p>Many have heard about the \u201cfight-or-flight\u201d response. What most people don\u2019t realize is how strongly our ingrained responses influence us, especially during a crisis like the one going on right now.<\/p>\n<p>Parts of our brains specialize in scanning incoming information for danger. Most stuff passes by this risk filter \u2013 like a familiar, friendly dog. But if a piece of information seems dangerous \u2013 like a big, barking dog racing toward us \u2013 the system triggers and a whole bunch of responses happen. Our heart and lungs speed up, our body tenses, blood redirects to larger muscles, we feel anxious and alert, and more. Our body gets ready to run or fight for our lives.<\/p>\n<p>The effect isn\u2019t just physical. The logic center in our brain gets suppressed and our fear center takes over. This means choices we\u2019d normally make calmly and rationally are instead driven by anxiety and worries \u2013 whether they are real or imagined.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-callout-box col-xs-12 col-sm-6 right\" style=\"background-color:#dce4e7; color:#2e3b44;\">\n<h3><strong>We can manage fight-or-flight thinking during the coronavirus pandemic and other stressful times. Try using some of these methods:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Acknowledge these are extraordinary times and take it easy on yourself and everyone else.<\/li>\n<li>Take time to slow down with some deep breaths. Even a few help.<\/li>\n<li>Limit how often you check the news or spend time on social media.<\/li>\n<li>Get information on the coronavirus pandemic from trusted sources, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.colorado.gov\/covid-19\/data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">State of Colorado<\/a>, <u>not<\/u> from social media.<\/li>\n<li>Exercise, eat well, get enough sleep \u2014 all good for the immune system!<\/li>\n<li>Try meditation and mindfulness.<\/li>\n<li>Do something for someone else. Small gestures make a big difference and make you feel better too.<\/li>\n<li>Be physically distant, not emotionally distant: Use technology to connect or talk across a front yard fence (at least six feet apart).<\/li>\n<li>Every day, identify things that you\u2019re grateful for: a pretty sunset, listening to a favorite song, chatting with a friend, playing with a child, and food in the cupboard.<\/li>\n<li>If the anxiety or worry is interfering with everyday functioning, consider speaking with a counselor (many of whom offer virtual visits) or call the <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradocrisisservices.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colorado Crisis Services\u2019<\/a> hotline at 1-844-493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The fight-or-flight response is great if you need to run away from a bear or fight off an attacker, but threats like the coronavirus pandemic don\u2019t give us a clear outlet for all that energy. And that\u2019s when trouble starts.<\/p>\n<p>Toilet paper hoarding is a good example. People get worried. Someone decides toilet paper is the commodity that is going to be scarce and starts stocking up. Others see that and their fear centers say, \u201cHey, I\u2019d better buy six months\u2019 worth of TP as well.\u201d\u00a0 And so on, and so on, until the shelves are bare.<\/p>\n<p>Such fight-or-flight driven choices can lead to increasing spirals of worry. And many, if not most of us, are being affected by our anxieties. This system is very primitive. It shows that the fear of missing out or FOMO isn\u2019t just about parties or bungee jumping, but about everyday activities too, even in a crisis. When fear kicks in, people will do whatever is necessary to reduce that fear and create a sense of control \u2014 whether that is buying large amounts of paper products and pasta, or getting into fights over the last can of Lysol.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the brain\u2019s fear detection system can be like an overly sensitive car alarm, going off and making everyone crazy when the reaction may be out of proportion to the risk. Certainly, we are facing real and grave risks now. But shopping won\u2019t allay our fears or inoculate us from the virus.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, the brain\u2019s danger assessment process is notoriously bad at assessing risk. It worked well when our choices were simpler: saber-toothed tiger = danger, little puppy = safe. But modern risks are so complicated that the brain struggles. Cars and airplanes are classic examples. Ask most people what\u2019s more dangerous of the two and they\u2019ll say flying. Yet the numbers are clear: flying is far safer than driving. Most of us hop in a car without a second thought, yet get a jolt of adrenaline anytime we hit turbulence or hear a weird thump on takeoff.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30326\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30326\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30326\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny.webp\" alt=\"woman looking out window demonstrating we have fears and fight-or-flight responses to the coronavirus right now.\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny.webp 800w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny-768x513.webp 768w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny-150x100.webp 150w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27095515\/Getty-woman-coffee-window-fear-anxiety-tiny-200x134.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30326\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The coronavirus pandemic can trigger deep fears, but there are techniques to manage fight-or-flight responses during this and other stressful times. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The fight-or-flight system focuses on things that happen quickly, are uncommon, feel out of our control, or seem likely to hurt us in serious or scary ways. Though driving is riskier than flying, it <em>feels<\/em> familiar, in our control, and thus, survivable. Dropping out of the sky happens fast, is unfamiliar, and makes us feel out of our control, and hard to survive \u2013 so our brains trigger the fight or flight response even though logic should tell us we\u2019ll be OK. <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2017\/07\/20\/are-airplanes-safer-than-cars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fortune Magazine noted this a few years ago<\/a>: \u201cPut it another way: Americans have a 1 in 114 chance of dying in a car crash, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/injuryfacts.nsc.org\/all-injuries\/preventable-death-overview\/odds-of-dying\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Safety Council<\/a>. The odds of dying in air [travel]\u2026 are 1 in 9,821. That\u2019s almost three times better chances than you [dying] by choking on food,\u2019\u2019 according to the article in Fortune Magazine.<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 pushes all the same mental buttons as flying: sudden, unfamiliar, out of our control, and potentially deadly. It\u2019s no wonder that many of us are feeling anxious and letting that fear response guide some of our decisions. COVID-19 is not an imagined danger, the risks are real, but fight or flight-driven thinking can lead to decisions that won\u2019t keep us safer and may make things worse.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-callout-box col-xs-6 col-sm-6 right\" style=\"background-color:#dce4e7; color:#2e3b44;\">\n<h4>For all updates and to read more articles about the new coronavirus, please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/covid-19-coronavirus-recent-updates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\">uchealth.org\/covid19<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30329\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30329\" style=\"width: 202px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30329\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27100953\/Nathan-mesnikoff-tiny.webp\" alt=\"Nathan Mesnikoff speaks about fight-or-flight during the coronavirus.\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27100953\/Nathan-mesnikoff-tiny.webp 269w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27100953\/Nathan-mesnikoff-tiny-202x300.webp 202w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27100953\/Nathan-mesnikoff-tiny-101x150.webp 101w, https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/27100953\/Nathan-mesnikoff-tiny-200x297.webp 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30329\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nathan Mesnikoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s because fear has another unfortunate side effect. It can shift us into survival-mode thinking which not only leads to hoarding of things like toilet paper; it can also narrow our focus to just ourselves and our immediate circle. But pandemics, like other widespread crises, really need us to think more broadly about our community and highlight how interconnected we are across Colorado, across the country, and across the world. We need each other, not only for food and toilet paper, but for health care, assistance with problems, and for simple connections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d isn\u2019t just a catchy tune from 1977; it\u2019s the essential driving force for humans. Our brain has a powerful system constantly watching out for danger to keep us safe. Many have heard about the \u201cfight-or-flight\u201d response. What most people don\u2019t realize is how strongly our ingrained responses influence us, especially during a crisis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":30325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,4859,3479,4860,2333],"class_list":["post-30324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","tag-behavioral-health","tag-coronavirus","tag-counseling-services","tag-covid-19","tag-mindfulness"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO 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