Foreign Experience in the Prevention of the COVID-19 Pandemic Stress

The article is aimed at studying the anxiety and stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Stresses caused by global risks such as pandemics are associated with an increase in the level of anxiety, fears, depression, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessions. One of the important areas of research of this phenomenon is the study of factors affecting the reduction of anxiety and ways of coping with it, evaluating the effectiveness of recommendations and areas of work that can be carried out in psychological practice. The situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has its own specific features that can also affect the specifics of experiencing stress and anxiety. Therefore, the assessment of ways to cope with stress should be based on taking this situation into account. The analysis of foreign studies is carried out, the recommendations that foreign researchers highlight are considered. The ways of overcoming anxiety and stress specific to the pandemic situation and recommendations developed by the authors on the basis of this have been identified: raising awareness of coronavirus infection, reducing discussion of issues related to COVID-19, increasing discussion of other topics, paying attention not only to negative news about the pandemic, but also to positive ones, using the Internet as a leisure activity. One of the ways to maintain positive emotions can be the formation of a sense of gratitude and kindness. The article describes several actions that a person can perform to provide emotional support and empirically estimates them. The proposed recommendations can be used to determine the directions of psychological assistance in the practical work of a psychologist, in the construction of psychotherapeutic and advisory work.

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