Cure for Fear During the COVID-19 Pandemic Process: Self-Compassion

Abstract

COVID-19 not only creates vital physiological effects on human health, but also creates serious mental effects. Increasing death numbers, emerging new variants and uncertainties about the pandemic process cause people to fear. Increasing the individual protective factors during this period will prevent the emergence of fear even in a negative process such as a pandemic. Accordingly, one of the potential concepts that can help protect individuals from the negative effects of COVID-19 is thought to be self-compassion. The self-compassion that an individual will show to himself while going through these difficult times can be the salve for the fear of COVID-19 and the mental problems it causes during this period. In this direction; In this review, it is aimed to reveal the relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and the concepts of self-compassion. PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Google Scholar databases were searched and six studies were found that examined the fear of COVID-19 and the concept of self-compassion together. When studies are examined, it is reported that individuals with high self-compassion levels experience less fear of COVID-19 and reduce mental problems such as depression and anxiety disorder due to fear of COVID-19. The results of this review will raise awareness of mental health professionals that intervention studies focusing on self-compassion should be applied both to patients in clinical settings and to society in terms of preventive mental health.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• fear
• self-compassion
• mental health

COVID-19 Pandemi Sürecinde Yaşanan Korkunun Merhemi: Öz-Şefkat

Öz

COVID-19, insan sağlığı üzerinde hayati fizyolojik etkiler oluşturmasının yanı sıra ciddi ruhsal etkiler de ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Artan ölüm sayıları, ortaya çıkan yeni varyantlar ve hala pandemi süreci ile ilgili olan belirsizlikler insanların korku duymasına sebep olmaktadır. Bu dönemde bireysel koruyucu faktörlerinin arttırılması pandemi gibi olumsuz bir süreçte dahi korkunun ortaya çıkmasına engel olacaktır. Buna bağlı olarak, COVID-19’un olumsuz etkilerinden toplumu korumada yardımcı olabilecek potansiyel kavramlardan birinin öz-şefkat olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu zorlu zamanlardan geçerken bireyin kendisine göstereceği öz-şefkat bu dönemde yaşadığı COVID-19 korkusunun ve yol açtığı ruhsal sorunların merhemi olabilir. Bu doğrultuda; bu derlemede COVID-19 korkusu ile öz-şefkat kavramları arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya koymak amaçlanmıştır. PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Google Scholar veri tabanları taranmış ve COVID-19 korkusu ile öz-şefkat kavramını birlikte inceleyen altı çalışmaya ulaşılmıştır. Yapılan çalışmalar incelendiğinde, öz-şefkat düzeyi yüksek olan bireylerin COVID-19 korkusunu daha az yaşadıkları ve COVID-19 korkusuna bağlı ortaya çıkan depresyon, anksiyete bozukluğu gibi ruhsal sorunları da azalttığı bildirilmektedir. Bu derlemenin sonuçları, öz-şefkati odak alan müdahale çalışmalarının hem klinik ortamda hastalara hem de koruyucu ruh sağlığı açısından topluma uygulanması gerektiği konusunda ruh sağlığı profesyonellerine farkındalık kazandıracaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• öz-şefkat
• COVID-19
• korku
• ruh sağlığı

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