Our author has had a long-term anxiety disorder. He calls out to his fellow sufferers, who are afraid that they will not be vaccinated: Why I understand you so well – and still advise you to do the right thing.
This text is for everyone who is afraid of a Covid vaccination. I believe there are very many of us among us. You are not a maverick or a conspiracy fanatic. They are “just” afraid. And I want to tell them: I understand you. I wish that you would decide otherwise, but I understand you. Because I know what fear means. How bad it can be. How it controls you and keeps you from what everyone says: “But you have to do that. It’s not bad. You don’t need to be afraid. Look, it didn’t happen to me either.”
If only it was that easy.
Fear is so powerful. But I know: she is not invincible!
I have had an anxiety disorder for many years. Well, yes, what does behind me mean. It’s still lurking in some corners of my brain, waiting to strike again. I was and still am very afraid of getting sick. I’m a hypochondriac who gets along reasonably well today. And luckily, I didn’t have any problems with the corona vaccination. I am now triple protected.
But that was a lucky coincidence. A few years ago I could very well have been one of you. One who says, “I can’t do this. I don’t want to.” Because I know what’s going on in your mind. Because I know what was going on in mine.
I would sit at home now and watch the news. Hear the vaccination appeals. All the explanations. The risk considerations. And my wife would say: “You see, corona disease is far more dangerous than a vaccination.” And I would have nodded. And then lay awake at night because there would be that other voice in my head. The voice of fear. And fear would have sat on top of me and said: The syringe. There’s a liquid in there. Something to do with genes. And that should get into me. In my upper arm and from there into the whole body. It’s supposed to protect me. But it will do something in my body. Everyone says: You can take it well. But fear says: who knows what will happen in ten years?
“But the virus wants to get into you too,” my wife would say. “And it can be devastating. Why are you less afraid of it?”
“I don’t know,” I would reply. “Maybe because it somehow comes from nature. Because it’s not artificial. Because it’s not injected into me.”
And my wife and our friends and colleagues would all be stunned. And they would try again and again to convince me.
It’s not about the rational
I don’t wanna do this I don’t want to bombard those who refuse to be vaccinated with arguments. Because these arguments – we all know them. Even the fearful. And the rational part in her head knows they’re good, persuasive arguments. But this is not about the rational. It’s about feelings. It’s about fear. Fear that makes you sick and prevents you from doing the right thing. And that is the fear we have to talk about. Because it distorts our perceptions. Information that matches fear is amplified by it. And everything that contradicts fear is neglected. We fearful ones see the world at some point only through the glasses of fear. If we are supposed to describe a white wall with a tiny black spot, then we only see the black spot, while everyone else mainly sees the white. And the little bit of spades with the well-researched vaccine that has been administered billions of times turns into evil that penetrates me and maybe makes me sick at some point. Selective perception. Catastrophic thinking.
That’s how I would feel if I were still in fear mode. That I could die of Corona or suffer severe damage … I would know, but split it off. Categorize as fateful. This is what makes people tick who are afraid. Wait. Vaccination, however, is active action. I have to make a conscious choice for them. And go somewhere and then let it happen. And that is so incredibly difficult for the fearful. He broods, hesitates, quarrels, accepts vaccination appointments and then withdraws. That is exactly the problem with fear: it paralyzes. If I just don’t do anything, Corona may or may not get me. Then I sit in shock at home and do nothing. If I get vaccinated, however, I create facts. Then I have something did, that might make me sick. I am responsible.
So better leave it alone, says fear.
But what to do
It’s about not letting fear prevail
In every therapy against fear it is said: The way out of fear goes through fear. You have to face it. And you have to act. You decide. Passivity makes the world smaller and fear greater. It’s not about not being afraid. It’s about not letting them win.
So there is only one way to go: stop pondering and weighing up. Don’t hesitate and quarrel any more. It will never be good like this. Instead: Get up, you fearful! Get a vaccination appointment and go through with it. you know that it’s good, even if it’s a little different feels. But that is the only viable path in this human crisis.
Yeah it’s tough I know how it’s going to go. After the vaccination you will quarrel. And the fear will increase. What if the whole thing is or will be harmful at some point? If only I didn’t have … Sleepless nights. But then the fear will decrease. Just a little at first. And then more with each day and each night. Until one day she’ll be gone. Believe me: that’s how it will be. I know what I’m talking about.
For many years I was like Charlie Brown, who in a famous cartoon by Charles M. Schutz sits depressed with Snoopy in his doghouse and says: “One day we will all die, Snoopy.”
And Snoopy replies, “That’s right. But all the other days we won’t.”