Don't let coronavirus fears affect your mental health, experts say

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Just as some people run out to get bread and milk every time there's a threat of snow, so have folks had that bunker-down mentality to the coronavirus from buying up all the medical masks at stores to financial markets taking a tumble.

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"The overreaction just comes from fear and that comes from the unknown," explained Dr. Ann Rost, a psychology instructor at Missouri State University who specializes in the health and behavioral field.

Any doctor will tell you that keeping a positive mental attitude is important in dealing with your physical illnesses and the same is true in not freaking out over the coronavirus.

After all, how much do you worry about other aspects of staying healthy?

"Physical fitness is a greater issue," Rost pointed out. "You probably have a greater threat to your health right now by sitting at home and eating potato chips and girl scout cookies than you have a threat from the coronavirus."

"I think there are some people who always worry about something and there's always going to be something to worry about." said David Jackson, who along with his wife Dana are among the thousands attending the Lawn and Garden this weekend at the fairgrounds in Springfield. They're aware of the higher health risk from being around large crowds but drove all the way from Dixon, Missouri just to buy a pair of tree saplings.

When asked about what life would be like if they did let health scares bother them?

"I'd be home all the time," Dana replied.

So what makes us become paranoid and worried?

Well, there's a part of our brain called the amygdala, refereed to as the headquarters of our fear factory.

"The amygdala is the primitive part of the brain and it controls your emotional response," Rost said. "It tends to be pretty impervious to information and logic."

Which is why even though you're more likely to die in a car accident, you're more worried about the coronavirus.

"Most of us have a general sense of control when we get behind the wheel that it's not going to happen to us," Rost explained. "In this case (of the virus threat) we don't feel like we have any extra control and we don't know anything about it. So those two together? Fear."

But it all comes down to keeping things in perspective.

"We are a little short supply of common sense on many aspects of this," Dana said.

"There's lyrics to a song that say, 'Don't worry, be happy!' You have that choice," David added. "If you want to worry about something it's out there. And if you want to be happy it's out there too."