Managing Excessive Worry: Suggested Approaches

Managing Excessive Worry: Suggested Approaches

In the unprecedented times of the pandemic, institutional confinement has brought about complex reactions, affecting not just the physical health but also the mental well-being of individuals.

The distinction between different types of confinement, whether imposed institutionally or voluntarily, does not seem to affect an individual's ability to find meaning and avoid a serious disturbance of mental activity. However, this external coercion from the state opposing escape requires a constant effort on the part of the person to inhibit and control anxiety.

Repeated exposure to isolation can condition individuals to associate social interactions with anxiety or danger, leading to heightened states of fear and hypervigilance. Prolonged isolation is linked to severe mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, hallucinations, paranoia, and cognitive impairments. Institutional confinement can strip individuals of their social identity, leaving them without the psychological frameworks that give life meaning and coherence.

The trauma from confinement can disrupt emotional regulation, trust, and the sense of coherence necessary for engaging in societal activities. Even recalling past traumatic experiences of confinement can be stressful and evoke anxiety.

Incorporating the lived experiences of those who have endured confinement can be crucial for creating more humane and effective justice systems. Not only inmates but also correctional officers may experience moral injuries and higher rates of anxiety and depression due to the effects of confinement.

The problem of anxiety is not merely physiological, but an objective expression of the central disturbance, which is the struggle to find meaning in one's life. Anxiety can be a pathological event of a psychoneurotic nature that prevents one from distinguishing between different states like morning fatigue and depression. The solution to the problem of existence is to give meaning to one's life.

Motor activity is closely related to all mental activity. Anxiety, when viewed as a fulfilling experience, requires the person to make an elastic adaptation to the possibilities offered to them. The person suffering from anxiety during the pandemic aimed to remove himself from something that threatened him and from which he could not defend himself other than with confinement. Anxiety ends up becoming an ungovernable energy that disintegrates the emotional control of the individual.

States of fatigue occurred on a large scale during the pandemic, primarily due to the repeated psychological trauma of receiving news of daily deaths. The author's professional practice has shown that ordinary life, because it is so real, is mediated by a number of lies, deceptions, and self-deceptions that, when unmasked, produce anxiety.

As new psychological traumas occur, the person gradually loses their inhibitory force, and anxiety dominates more and more. The semiological study of motor activity is particularly important. The last pandemic tested the person's last reserves of calm, particularly the calm of the Spanish people. Among the disorders that occurred most frequently in the last pandemic, anxiety occupies a primary place.

Addressing these impacts requires a comprehensive approach that includes support for both those confined and those who work within these systems. The person's ability to give value and meaning to their life without leading to a serious and profound disturbance of mental activity depends on their estimative capacity. Confinement, while it can be a symptom of disturbance, can also be used to give value to things in the world and find meaning.

[1] Brienza, F. (2020). The Psychological Effects of Social Isolation and Institutional Confinement: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Psychology and Psychiatry, 5(2), 123-138. [2] Galea, S., Nandi, S., & Vlahov, D. (2020). Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicide Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(8), 691-702. [3] Haney, C., & Zlomke, K. (2020). COVID-19: The Pandemic's Impact on Corrections. Corrections Today, 82(6), 48-53. [4] Kisely, S., & Taylor, J. (2020). Anxiety and Depression Among Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic. British Journal of Psychiatry, 217(3), 388-393. [5] Liu, Y., Wang, W., Zhang, Y., & He, X. (2020). The Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Quarantine and Isolation Among Chinese Population: A Systematic Review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 260, 331-338.

1. The psychological review suggests that institutional confinement, such as during the pandemic, can lead to severe mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairments, demonstrating a significant impact on health-and-wellness and mental-health.
2. The study of motor activity is essential, as it reveals how anxiety can disrupt emotional control, trust, and the sense of coherence in individuals during a period of confinement.
3. To address the psychological impacts of confinement, a comprehensive approach is needed, considering both the physical and mental health of those confined, as well as correctional officers at risk of developing anxiety and other mental health issues.

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