Swine Flu Fear
07 May 2009 ~ Categories: blog • events
I’m not sure which is scarier, witnessing the swine flu “pandemic” sweeping across the world, or witnessing the fear of a pandemic freaking us out and making top headlines everywhere last week.
I don’t mean to discount the possible gravity of situations like this. Swine flu is a real thing and it’s affecting a lot of people. It basically shut down Mexico City and spread to the Bay Area.
We also know that the C.D.C. deemed the H1N1 flu, nicknamed “swine flu”, a possible pandemic with a similar M.O. as the Spanish flu of 1918 that paradoxically prayed on the immune healthy instead of the immune weak (infants/elderly).
In the case of the Spanish flu, it started as a milder flu that popped up in the springtime and then came back with a deadly vengeance later that fall.
But what I find really frightening at this stage in the game is the global media’s participation in promoting global crisis. We often walk a fine-line between promoting awareness and inciting fear.
Awareness is noticing what actually is. Fear, according to dictionary.com, is “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.”
We humans like a good story. And we have been known to, on more than rare occasion, jump to conclusions and exaggerate. Hence, the rampant addiction to gossip magazines and getting into other people’s “business”.
Maybe it’s just that we like to have something to talk about, something “important”, something that at least feels like it connects us? Maybe it’s an easy way to make us feel more invigorated, more alive (even when the subject is about possible death)?
How about some good examples?
A friend of mine had the sniffles. I saw the fear in her eyes as friends warned her she may be experiencing the first stages of a deadly virus. Another friend was invited to a party that was cancelled because the host didn’t want to bring “strangers” into her home.
Suddenly her friends are strangers? That’s odd.
Fear sells, and when we let fear lead, we lose sight of the reality that most of us will not be touched by swine flu. Or if we are, in some hellish scenario, then fear doesn’t help anyway.
You can protect yourself. Wash your hands. Protect your bodily system with anti-viral remedies like olive leaf, elderberry or oscillococcinum, a proven homeopathic flu fighter.
Consult a doctor if you have the flu. But largely this is yet another reminder to take extra care of yourself. To me that seems the big lesson so far (that and, don’t overreact).
Do yourself a favor, don’t let your fear get the best of you. It’s not healthy. I believe it is important to be aware. And in the case of pandemics, they have been a reality in history, but remember it’s just not at all clear that this is another one.
I love the classic Franklin Roosevelt line and it seems apropos here: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
And in any case, since laughter is the best medicine, do yourself a favor and check out this silly video.
Tame your fear,
Amy
