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I was reading a book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. I came to realize that there is an unknown factor in the surge of corona virus patients. That unknown factor is more dangerous than corona virus itself. That factor is “fear for ill health or hypochondria”. And it is included in six basic fears which human being encounter in their entire life. These six fears includes “The fear of Poverty ,The Fear of Criticism, The fear of ill health, The fear of loss of Love Of Someone, The Fear of old age, and Fear of death”. But the factor which is related to our topic is “fear of ill health”. Before discussing this factor it is mandatory to analyze overall situation of society due to COVID-19.
Corona Virus called as Covid-19 has not only effected our lives but it has also disturbed our cultural norms. Lock down is over except two days a week. At every platform either mainstream media or social media, corona is being discussed. Fake news at social media are at their peak. In short either you are using mobile phone or TV for entertainment or news purpose, you are receiving information about Covid-19.This information is being stored in your subconscious mind.
But question remains same that what is that unknown factor and how is it effecting? This unknown factor is called as “Hypochondria”. It is a medical term in which a person worries excessively that he/she is not feeling good and he is suffering from many diseases. He/she is having symptoms of various diseases. According to writer of this book a reputable physician 75% of all people who visit physician for professional service are suffering with hypochondria (imaginary illness). But most important fact is that if someone fears a lot from a disease even he is not having any symptoms, often produces physical symptoms of the disease feared. For example during world war 1, influenza broke out ,the mayor of New York city took drastic steps to check the damage people were doing themselves through their inherit fear of ill health. He called in Newspaper men and said to them, Gentlemen, I feel it is necessary to ask you not to publish any scare headlines concerning the flu epidemic. Unless you cooperate with me, we will have a situation we which we can’t control. The newspapers quit publishing stories about the “flu “and within one month the epidemic had been successfully checked.
Human mind is so powerful that either it builds or it destroys. So subconscious mind is active even when we are sleeping. According to researcher’s subconscious mind is most powerful part of mind because it is fertile land of brain in which if you sow positive thoughts subconscious mind will reap positive results but if you sow negative thoughts then it will destroy you. Similarly all information that we get from different sources got stored in this subconscious mind. In this pandemic as most of the information is negative so people are unintentionally sowing negative information to their subconscious mind. That is resulting in negative way like people are unintentionally developing symptoms of corona virus in them. Let me explain you with example. Pakistan’s railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed corona result was found positive but according to him he was not showing any symptoms. So this may be this unknown factor called as fear of ill health or hypochondria. It’s another example is that when someone suffers from influenza, his or hers subconscious mind starts reminding him or her that he/she is having symptoms of Covid-19.
So disease may begin in the form of negative thought impulses. These negative thoughts impulses may develop into positive forms like showing symptoms of a disease. Most important thing is how to stop these negative thoughts impulses and what should be our role as a citizen of this country, also role of main stream as well as social media and especially role of Government.
Media is said to be fourth pillar of the society. It has shown that during this pandemic media played important role in the sense of spreading awareness among masses. Similarly social media has its
own value and it was also on the front lines of battle against this pandemic but eventually it lost its pace and it became hub of fake news agencies. So social media should understand the situation faced by whole world especially in Pakistan where resources are scare to fight this pandemic. Similarly both mainstream and social media should focus on highlighting other issue rather than Covid-19, so that people’s attention may be diverted to other issues, instead of watching whole day, the news about Covid-19. Similarly we as a citizen should help our college and school students by posting videos on different topics related to their school or college curriculum. So that those students who can’t afford tuition fees may get benefit from these videos. Most importantly media should focus on entertainment as well as religious programs and Covid-19 news should only be included once a day like in 9 pm news bulletin. In this way we can overcome or defeat this unknown factor, which is responsible for the surge of not only Covid-19 patients but other disease as well.
