How does confinement affect families and couples?
The current confinement situation seems to be coming to an end, but... What protocols and psychological hygiene measures should families follow in these turbulent times?
Confinement and families: how to manage negative emotions?
The professionals of Athena center in Palma de Mallorca Help us shed light on this issue.
1. How do you think confinement may be affecting families?
We are experiencing a situation unknown to most of us, new measures, a different situation, many unanswered questions, uncertainty... All this affects our emotional, psychological and mental stability.
In the same day we go through many and diverse emotions: frustration, anger, bewilderment, sadness, insecurity, fear, anguish, joy, hope, love... all of them lead us to express ourselves incorrectly or desperately with those around us.
It is important to start from the basis that confinement affects us on a personal level. All the members that make up the family nucleus feel that uncontrolled mix of emotions.
We should not be scared if we have discussions or misunderstandings with our partner, parents or children, on issues that have never caused us confrontations, it is normal. Within this peculiar situation that we are experiencing, feelings intensify more, needs come to light, we are less receptive and more susceptible.
2. In the context of a couple relationship without children, what do you think are the psychological and relational hygiene measures that should guide these days of quarantine?
There are different couple profiles, depending on the routine to which they were accustomed:
Couples used to working together and spending many hours together. The current scenario has hardly changed for them. This profile of a couple is used to managing that time together, the individual getaways that they could do before (lunches with friends, walks on the beach, shopping...) can be replace by doing individual activities that relax them and relieve daily stress (relaxing baths, video calls with friends, reading that book you can never find for time..)
Couples who work all day away from home and see each other for dinner. The scenario they are currently experiencing is completely changed. If you are within this couple profile, it is important to increase communication from the feeling, that is, to express how we feel to avoid conflicts caused by misunderstandings. We must take advantage of this moment to get to know ourselves better and enjoy more of the moments as a couple. prepare trips
Couples who could share moments throughout the day depending on the intensity of work (having breakfast together, lunch or dinner).
Whatever the profile of the couple, finding individual moments to disconnect and relax, talk more, communicate emotions and feelings and project plans for the future, are the advice that from Athena we give to couples in these disparate moments that we are living.
3. How to prepare a grieving process when it is not possible to hold family gatherings in which to say goodbye to the loved one?
This point is, without a doubt, the most difficult and hard that a human being must experience.
There is no formula that prevents pain and suffering from the loss of a loved one in unusual or sudden circumstances. We can only anticipate, speak from the heart with our relative, tell him that he is important to us, that we love him very much and that we need him.
It is important to be able to contact our relatives and share with them the pain we feel.
Expressing and sharing are the bases to be able to better cope with these hard and difficult moments.
4. From Athena, what resources or tools are you providing to your patients to attend to their needs, are they linked to covid-19 or not?
From Athena, we have contact with each of our patients. We offer you the resources and tools that adapt to each of your needs and demands. We offer Skype sessions, phone calls, messages...
Today more than ever, we must learn from this situation. To give more to whom we want, to stop. To know how to say enough, to fight injustices, to value the little things that fill us, to love each other, to ask for forgiveness and to forgive.
We'll get out of this! But if we don't learn anything, all our suffering and effort will have been for nothing.
