The expert explained what fears of Russians can lead to mass psychosis

The news feed has not spoiled us with positive for a long time, and on Thursday morning, alarming information went out: on the eve of the arrival of the IAEA commission at the Zaporozhye NPP, shelling from the Armed Forces of Ukraine intensified, in addition, the Ukrainians attempted to land troops in the area of ​​​​the nuclear power plant.

Against this background, various fears are exacerbated in impressionable people. For example, today a 37-year-old Muscovite suffering from depression committed suicide because she was terrified of a nuclear war. Can isolated cases of panic develop into mass psychosis? Psychiatrist Vladislav KRASIN answers.

– In May, when the fighting was going on near Chernobyl, all iodine disappeared from pharmacies, people in a panic stocked up on medicines and food, as if a nuclear catastrophe could break out at any moment. But then the war zone shifted, and the panic subsided. But now everything is repeating itself: every day, in the news we are told about the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And again the fear of a nuclear strike returned. Fortunately, most people deal with their phobias, but the woman you are talking about was not so lucky. But in her case, the main reason that pushed her to commit suicide was depression, and the fear of nuclear war became only a trigger.

“Nevertheless, this is not an isolated case of fear of a nuclear threat these days. Quite sane, adequate people admitted to me that now they cannot sleep at night. And someone already at the dacha equipped the basement in case of a nuclear apocalypse.

– The fear of a world war, a nuclear threat is one of the most common among our people. We can say that we absorbed it with mother’s milk. Back in the days of my childhood, adults were always one of the first to make a toast to peace at the festive table, saying: if only there was no war … This, by the way, is also confirmed by sociological studies. Only the fear of illness of children, close relatives is stronger. And only then comes the fear of the arbitrariness of the authorities, economic disasters, such as poverty, unemployment, and so on.

– Probably, the information environment in which we now live is unfavorable for the psyche?

– Of course, at first the coronavirus pandemic lasted more than two years, and then all sorts of fears were also pumped up in the media. And then immediately from one peak we got into another state connected with the Ukrainian events. No wonder we are all a little out of our minds right now.

– But why does the fear of war, a nuclear catastrophe, push some people to desperate acts, while others find the strength to live on and even help others, for example, go to volunteers, host refugees?

The woman who committed suicide had long suffered from a severe form of depression. This insidious disease should not be underestimated; in terms of the number of diagnoses, it has already overtaken cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases. Every year, because of it, 480 thousand people die in the world, some cannot cope with longing and hopelessness, others are oppressed by a feeling of their own worthlessness, various phobias are superimposed.

– Can the fear of a nuclear or terrorist threat take the form of a mass psychosis?

– Yes, there have already been cases of mass hysteria. For example, during the war in Yugoslavia, thousands of children from Kosovo had all the symptoms of toxic poisoning. The Serbs were then accused of using banned chemical weapons. But even after the most thorough examination, doctors did not find toxic substances in the bodies of patients, and they had to admit that this was mass hysteria. A similar story happened during the conflict in the Persian Gulf, where the alleged disease struck mostly women. And in the United States, after the September 11 terrorist attack, many schoolchildren suddenly began to develop a rash outside the house, but as soon as they returned home, it immediately disappeared.

– Cases of mass hysteria manifest themselves only in such a painful way?

– It happens in different ways, the earliest case described in the medical literature dates back to the Middle Ages. In one of the women’s monasteries in France, the nuns suddenly began to … meow, the cat was then considered an unclean animal, an accomplice of the devil, it was assumed that she could take possession of a person. These phobias manifested themselves in the nuns in such an unusual way. Therefore, the authorities who arrived at that monastery threatened to flog the nuns for such eccentricity, supposedly after that they began to recover – one fear overcame another.

How can we deal with our fears?

– Fear is our fantasy about an event that can happen to us. You need to immediately return to reality from the fantasy world. To do this, all means are good, you can do physical labor, for example, clean the apartment or go in for sports.

– And if fear literally paralyzed and there is no strength to move?

“Then play a game with him. I call this exercise “Alphabet”. Choose any letter and look in the apartment, around you for any objects that begin with it. The main thing at such a moment is to divert your attention, switch it from a painful fantasy to the real world of things.