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Loneliness And Stress Can Make You More Prone To COVID-19, If Exposed. Here’s How To Combat Those Feelings

Apr 3, 2020

By: Brittany Britto | Houston Chronicle

“Stay home, work safe” mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic can help slow the spread of the virus, but those guidelines also contribute to other health and wellness problems, a Rice University researcher says.

Christopher Fagundes, an associate professor in Rice’s department of psychological sciences, said social distancing and the overall uncertainties of the pandemic could leave some people feeling lonely and stressed. It can also impact sleep — all factors that can weaken the immune system and make people more susceptible to the virus if exposed.

The psychologist, who has studied stress and the immune system for a decade, said stress, loneliness and lack of sleep can promote an over-response in the body, which can generate sustained upper respiratory infection symptoms.

While much of his research has focused on colds and upper respiratory viruses, Fagundes said he is certain the effects would be the same for COVID-19.

In a 2017 study, Fagundes found that healthy people without compromised immune systems who spent less time around others but were exposed to the cold virus were still significantly more likely to become sick. Further, they would experience worse symptoms than those who got out and socialized, according to a university release. Fagundes said positive emotions can lessen stressors and evoke a favorable immune response.

Similarly, a 2015 study in the journal “Sleep” gave 164 volunteers the rhinovirus and quarantined them while assessing the amount of sleep each participant got. Those who slept six hours or less were more likely to develop a cold than those who slept seven to nine hours, according to the study.

Chronic stress alone, however, is enough to disrupt the immune system and make people more susceptible to viruses and colds — which is why college students often become sick weeks of studying for finals. The levels of stress hormone cortisol can increase in those who are chronically stressed so much that their cell receptors become desensitized and can lead to chronic inflammation.

Even if a person is not exposed to the virus, spending a lot of time at home — maybe with more free time but restricted activity — can be a recipe for depression, Fagundes said.

But Carrie Barron, a well-being coach and an assistant professor for the University of Texas at Austin’s department of psychiatry in the Dell Medical School, said there are positives.

“There’s a silver lining in that we have to scale back and appreciate a simpler life. That can create a shift in our values that could get us through right now,” she said.

While loneliness is a subjective experience, wherein a person feels like they don’t have support, solitude can be productive and even enlightening from a psychological perspective, Barron said.

Fagundes and Barron offer seven tips for people to follow:

1. Keep a routine. “It’s very easy to lose sense of the day when we don’t have a scheduled routine everyday, especially for those who can’t work,” Fagundes said.

Even for those who are working from home, time management is useful. Fagundes suggests writing out a daily schedule by the hour — everything from recreational activities like working on a puzzle or watching a TV show, to completing a work assignment. “It gives you goals to achieve every hour. It keeps you on your toes so you don’t just go down the rabbit hole of fear and rumination.” It can also help keep sleep regulated.

2. Set aside time to worry. For those who find themselves dwelling on worst-case scenarios, allot a short amount of time to do that each day — preferably by writing it out with a pen and paper in the morning rather than at night. Then don’t think about it for the rest of the day.

Scheduling research and “worry times” allows people to avoid overdoing it or being overwhelmed.

“There’s useful information that you need to learn from the news about what’s going on. Ignorance is not a good idea,” Fagundes said, but neither is obsessively thinking about it. “Our brain tells us we’re trying to solve something … but in reality, you’re not really solving anything.”

3. Stay connected. Fagundes advises staying connected with friends and family members through phone calls, text and social media. The more video conferences, the better.

“There’s something about chatting with people and having them visually ‘with’ you that seems to be more of a buffer against loneliness,” Fagundes said.

A 2018 study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry showed that retired adults who used video chat technology or Skype had a lower risk of developing depression than those who used email, social networks, instant messaging or nothing at all.

4. Be active. Physical activity and staying busy does help those who are at risk of depression. Fagundes advises staying active within the context of the current advised guidelines and without exposing yourself to potential harm or the virus.

5. Answer those nagging questions from your children. It’s likely that your kids have even more questions than they typically do, which is normal.

When stressful life events happen, “what kids want to do more than anything is talk … and not even about anything specific to what’s happening on the news,” Fagundes said. “They are isolated, at home. They’re stressed and they’re not able to talk to their friends and make sense of the world.” As a result, the number of questions that they ask may increase. But Fagundes said it’s just children trying to get your attention so they can feel better, so give them your listening ear when you can.

6. Roll with the uncertainty and get creative. Uncertainty is one of the hardest things for human beings, Barron said.

“We want predictability. We want a path, a spiritual method … or being comforted by the people around (us) to deal with the uncertainty that we’re living in with right now.”

But a useful method is to find some calmness and create some new experiences within the constraints. “There’s a way that we can reach into parts of living and parts of ourselves that can carry us through,” Barron said.

Using the imagination to connect with people in new ways, to invent and learn new things, to reach back into our pasts to find things that reconnect us with our own values and beliefs, and to challenge ourselves are some ways she said people can combat moments of loneliness, boredom or fear. An example: Can you come up with a dish using things that are just in your pantry and refrigerator without going to the store?

7. Play catch up and tend to your space. Now is also an opportune time to catch up on the things that have made you anxious in the past or feel left undone — whether that be cleaning out drawers or reorganizing closets, Barron said.

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