COVID Vaccine Anxiety | Ep. 27

Hi there. This is Dr. Nicole and today I want to talk with you about COVID vaccine anxiety. There is so much information going around about the COVID vaccine and I've been hearing from more and more people about how they're really anxious and unsure and insecure about the vaccine, especially with all of this confounding data coming out, is that some people are out there and they're zooming towards the finish line and they have a green light and they're ready to go and they're ready to receive the vaccine. And then there are people that are on the other side of the spectrum that have a screeching stop up to a red light and they're completely opposed to getting the vaccine. And so when we have people on both ends of the spectrum, it can be really confusing for us to figure out what's the right answer. And so today we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about how to deal with COVID vaccine anxiety and stress. And how do you make a decision that's right for you? And I want to help you enter a state where you feel centered and empowered and where you can make a decision for yourself and for your family that you're not going to regret later, that you're going to, from a whole person's self, feel confident and convicted in. And you're going to be able to do this by the end of this quick video, by following three simple steps. And they are quick, they're easy, and they're reliable. It's a big claim, right? And so I just say let's jump right on in. And if there are questions or things that come up during this live, or if you're listening to this recording later and you have questions that you want to ask, or if there's layers that are emerging that you want to process, let's continue to have this conversation. And I think it's a really important, really big conversation to have. And so there are a lot of people out there with opinions and there's so many conflicting opinions. Right. It feels like no matter where you go, you're going to get really strong opinions on one side or the other. And this can be incredibly stress provoking. And when people come to me and they're expressing Covid anxiety, there's a lot of different aspects that may be causing the anxiety that may be troubling for people. Are you anxious about how quickly it came out? Or I've heard a lot of people talk about what are these unknown long term side effects or maybe you're stressed and worried about a foreign substance being injected to your body. Or maybe it's a fear of needles that has you feeling anxious, or maybe you just feel afraid because you don't have information or education even from a COVID vaccine support. And also there's a lot of misinformation out there. And so you might be trying to dig and research, but it may be like asking a high schooler to study quantum physics. It can just be so big and so overwhelming that we just feel paralyzed. Have you ever felt that way? Does that resonate with you where trying to make a big decision with so much information, it can just be completely overwhelming. Right? And the thing is, is that you're not going to find the ultimate truth about this vaccine by digging deeper and deeper into Reddit threads or the rabbit hole vaccine debates on Google. And sometimes research can create a good objective end of the sentence that says yes and no. And with the COVID vaccine, unfortunately, we just don't know everything yet. There is no objective answer. There's some people that do well, there's some people that don't do well. We don't know why, we don't know the long term effects. And so when people are making absolute declarative statements from either side, you must take this vaccine or you can't take this vaccine, it's dangerous. Whatever they're saying, they're taking a state from a position of faith based on their education on the topic, with respect to their cast of characters that have formed a foundation of understanding and interpretation of what they're hearing and learning. And all of that is circling around you. And really fundamentally what it comes down to is each person's individual choice. But how can you do that when there's so much stress and anxiety and politics surrounding this? Right, so the ACT method has an answer. And today I want to teach you how to overcome COVID vaccine anxiety by following this three step method. And so I want to get started with you today and stick around to the end because if this is helpful and if you're like, oh my gosh, you just gave me an introduction to these three steps and I'm ready to jump in head first. I actually want to share with you a free webinar that I have that will walk you through this in a really efficient and successful way. And, and I think you're gonna really like it. So stick around to the end and I'll share that information with you. But for now, let's dive in. So the first thing with COVID anxiety is that we can't solve a problem that we're not willing to have. And so the first thing is you have to acknowledge that you're feeling in the yellow zone, that you're feeling anxious about the vaccine, that you're feeling unsure. You may have a decision that's already made. You may be choosing that you are going to get the vaccine. You may be choosing that you're going to wait on getting the vacc. You may be choosing that you're not going to get the vaccine. But if there's anything in you that is still producing anxiety, if there's something in you that's still producing uncertainty, it's really important to acknowledge that, again, we can't solve a problem that we aren't willing to have. An acknowledgement is the first step of the ACT method, and it's really profoundly important. And the second is to acknowledge and to notice your cast of characters. And so what is coming up for you may be clouding your ability to, to objectively assess how you feel about the vaccine. For example, parts of yourself that may have health anxiety, parts that may have needle anxiety. Interestingly, a lot of phobias about needles and shots, medications, treatments, can come from childhood trauma. I want to share with you an example from my story. When I was around 12 years old, I had really bad asthma that was worse with exertion. And so I remember I would be running around outside during recess in the grass and it was hard to breathe and I was having a lot of asthma. I was having a hard time breathing and catching my breath. And so I was taken to a specialist. And in the 90s at this time, the way that they diagnosed asthma was to have the patient inhale a chemical. And if they reacted to that chemical by having asthma, then they would diagnosed them with asthma, which I think is completely asinine and insane now. Like, if you can't breathe, you can't breathe. Like, why do we have to have you inhale the chemical? But that's a rabbit hole, right? So I'm sitting in this doctor's office, I'm inhaling this crazy chemical substance and I'm getting respiratory distress. I can't breathe and I'm getting scared and I'm getting anxious. And there's this doctor in a white coat with a clipboard and. And he's taking notes and he's like, yeah, looks like she might have asthma. And my parent was sitting there and just like, oh, interesting. She is having that asthma response to the chemical. It must be a diagnosis. Meanwhile, I'm suffocating and I'm freaking out. And it felt like a million years. You know, when you're scared and anxious, time changes on how fast and how slowly it goes. And so for me, in that moment, I'm 12 years old, time is crawling and I'm thinking that I'm going to die if I don't catch a breath. And then the doctor comes over and he switches the nebulizer and I start to inhale albuterol, which is what they use for asthma, and my lungs open up. And an event like that can get stored in your body. An event like that can get stored in what I call time capsules. The body can start to associate. White coats are dangerous, doctors are dangerous, medicine is dangerous. I don't trust people who are in charge. I don't trust people who are in control. I've been failed by the health care system, I've been failed by my caretakers, I've been failed by this medicine. I've been failed by my own body that was in rebellion in such a way that necessitated I go to this doctor who failed me. Right? And so all of these layers start to store, store in the brain. And the problem with this is that oftentimes they get stored in the part of the brain that doesn't have access to processing. Processing is where you can analyze, where you can think about things critically. It's where talk therapy lives. This is where we talk about, oh, well, the doctor wasn't trying to kill you, Nicole. It was a chemical test. You passed the test, got the diagnosis, he was always able to save you. Logically we may understand and know that, but that time capsule, that 12 year old self, that past self, does not know that that trauma can be stored in the part of the brain that doesn't have language or processing. And so this is the same with vaccine anxiety. There may be stories that you've heard, there may be things that have happened to you, things that have happened to people that you love. And it could have to do with vaccines, or it could have to do with any sort of person in your life that was in control, that didn't take care of you. And so oftentimes we can feel like we're unsafe when a larger authority is telling us to do something. And it can be like wearing purple polka dotted sunglasses and looking at the blue sky and believing that the sky has polka dots. And so regardless of what that doctor was doing, was it okay, was it not okay? Regardless of if the vaccine is a good idea or if it is not a good idea? I'm not here to make a claim on either end of that, but what I am saying is that those parts are participating in this decision. And if you've made a decision, or if you're struggling to make a decision, and if you feel anxiety about the COVID vaccine, it may be parts of those time capsules that are expressing that uncertainty, that are expressing that fear, that anger, that depression, that anxiety, that rage, all of those feelings that come up with it. And these are your psychological characters. Continuing to have these traumas stored in your brain will impact you for the rest of your life if you don't deal with them. And so part of the act method, part of this three step process is to acknowledge I'm feeling anxious about the COVID vaccine or whatever it is that you're anxious about. And the second step is to go deep into the psychological characters of your brain and to identify what part of myself is feeling this way, what part of me is angry, what part of me is afraid, what is their unmet need, what do they need me to know and what do these parts need me to do for them. And only then when you have honored those parts, integrated those parts and done the work, will you be equipped to make a huge decision from the totality of who you are so that you can walk forward with conviction of knowing that for you, you made the right decision choice. And doing that work can be empowering, it can be life changing. And it doesn't just relate to vaccines. It can be anything. It can be anything that's holding you back from the life you deserve to live. Right? And so that's the psychological characters and I'm going to tell you how to address that without spending years on a clinician's couch or thousands of dollars on different doctors, tests, supplements and treatments. I'm going to tell you about that at the end. That's what I was telling you to hang around for when we were at the beginning is I'm going to tell you how to do that. I have a free webinar, but I'm getting ahead of myself because the second thing that we're doing as the psychological characters is really important, but we also want to pay attention to the social characters. So in the story that I told you about the asthma, there's the doctor, there was my parent, there was my different parts, my 12 year old self, maybe younger selves that were part of, of that experience. But when you're doing that deep dive, make sure that you're considering all of the other things, the variables that went into your story that could be impacting how you're perceiving vaccination today. Right? And then we want to look at the physical characters. This is your nervous system, this is your brain stem. This is the rudimentary fight, flight, freeze, flop, flawn response that our bodies go into even when it isn't logical, even if emotionally we feel good, maybe we're dissociated or suppressed, or we feel like we made the right choice, but we're now having all of these physical symptoms like heart palpitations, numbness, tingling, butterflies in your stomach, indigestion, exhaustion, whatever those symptoms are. These are your characters of the body, the psychological or the biological characters. And so looking into that can be really important. And one of my favorite ways is to just notice the sensation that the body is producing and and then saying to it, I hear you, I'm listening. What do you need me to know? And just simply allowing your body to share that with you. And again, you'll get this in the free webinar. And then the last step is transformation. So we have the ACT method. It's act, so it's acknowledge cast of characters. Those are the three that we talked about, psychological, biological and social. And then the last step is the T. This is the transformation tools for transformation where you transform anxiety into empowerment. This is broken into several steps. But for the vaccine conversation today, I want to talk with you about three specific steps. One of the transformation steps is knowledge is power. I'm not here to educate you on how the vaccine works and all of the nitty gritty with that. I recommend that you go to the expert sources, go to the researchers, go to the cdc. If you don't like the cdc, go to other agencies that you trust, like universities, private agencies that have done the diligence, done the research. If there's a scientist or an immunologist or specialist that you trust and value and respect, go to that person. I'd like to discourage you from going down rabbit holes on Reddit and Google because again, that's so overwhelming. And anybody with an Internet connection and an opinion can post anything they want. Of course, it depends on the platform, right? Of how much information can be said about what, where. But generally speaking, you can get information from anyone, anywhere. And so when you're attaining knowledge, make sure that you're going to reputable sources, primary sources to get the information. And try to resist the urge to ask Dr. Google because that can create a whole mess of worms that will just create more anxiety and more stress. When I was in My rock bottom of anxiety. One of the symptoms my doctor would always ask me about is, hey, Nicole, how much time have you spent Googling? And I was like, oh my gosh, this is a really good indicator of my well being is how much time I've spent obsessively searching. And so again, knowledge is power. Get the information so that you can objectively make a decision from the totality of your parts, your logical parts, your emotional parts, your body parts, but also make sure that you're going to sources that are going to speak truth and wisdom. The second step of transformation is to know your boundaries. And this is huge. No matter what you decide about the vaccine, somebody is going to disagree with you and somebody's going to be upset. You can't win in this argument. Someone is going to completely disagree with you. Someone's going to be upset. It is a huge controversy with such strong emotions on either side of the spectrum. And you have a choice in this matter about how you want to deal with it. Some people feel called to stand up and say what they feel, some people feel called to make declarative statements. And some people that just creates an open loop or they feel like they're being attacked or they're in these debates and these arguments. And so for you, it's important to decide what is going to be the most honoring and authentic to where you are right now. And so whether or not you get a vaccine, this is your personal choice and I want you to protect yourself. And so in order to do that, let's talk just for a moment about the House of Boundaries. The House of Boundaries is an exercise that I came up with that helps us to objectively identify how much we disclose to people and how much personal information do people have access to. Some people want to be an open book and they're an open concept house and for them, maybe that's working. But I really encourage you to consider maybe having a more closed concept house when it comes to big things like this so that you can protect yourself. You want to be able to authentically and openly communicate, but do that with people who have earned the privilege to know where you stand, right? So maybe not every grocery clerk or Uber driver or co worker needs to know where you stand. Maybe you want them to know and that's how you're expressing your purpose and expressing your convictions. But if these people are unsafe for you, then make sure that you're considering your well being as far as how you're protecting yourself as well as your mission, right? And so know your Boundaries. We talk a ton about this in the cast of characters section of the act method. And I also have a ton of free content and I'll include a link for you here where you can go to my website, Dr.nicolecane.com house-of boundaries and you can watch a video and read about that and start building your house there. But. And again, this is to protect you. And maybe again, you have an open concept and the boundaries are limitless. And maybe if your anxiety is high and you need to self preserve and self protect right now, that's okay too. And let's figure out what that looks like for you together. The last step of the transformation is to honor your parts. Anxiety, anger, sadness, these are all signs that something is out of balance and that we have an unmet need. And think about it this way. Trying to make a decision without first honoring your experience is kind of like mailing a letter without an address or driving to the Grand Canyon without a map. And when our parts are expressing distress by giving us symptoms, whether emotional or physical or mental, we need to respect and honor that. These parts are here to try to protect us and preserve us. And giving them the respect and the honoring and the voice and the opportunity to be heard and related with will give you a foundation free of regret and doubt. And it will involve all of you so that you're not having to dissociate parts of yourself and partition them in order to make a decision. And so if this is interesting to you, if you're dealing with anxiety about the COVID vaccine, you don't have to. You can make a decision that feels good. You can make a decision that's best for you. You can can make a decision that will help reduce your anxiety and your stress and help you move forward with the confidence and conviction that you deserve to have. And I want to teach you how to do that. And I have a webinar that I created just for you. And it's totally free. It's called a three minute hack. And in this three minute hack, when anxiety comes up, when anxiety is sharing its voice, I teach you how to deal with that in three minutes flat in a way that does what I've been talking about in this video. It won't teach you how to suppress it and put it in the closet so that it'll rear its ugly head later. It will actually tell you how to honor your parts. Deal with those time capsules and you can do it really quickly. You can access this video right now from the comfort and the convenience of Your home, the privacy of your safe place. And you can start it and stop it and you can watch it as many times as you need to. And sisters, this works. This gets results. This is what changed my life when I was in my rock bottom anxiety. And this is information that I have been able to collect as a naturopathic physician in Arizona. And having studied clinical psychology, having both feats in the world of mental health and integrative functional medicine, I've been able to collect all of that data and condense it down into something that you can succeed, successfully, do in three minutes. And it's free. There are literally no disadvantages or risks to you. Click on the link, we're going to put it in the show notes and download the webinar. If you're not ready to watch it right now, you're going to have it, bookmark it and then watch the webinar. I promise it will make an impact in your well being. There are no risks and you deserve it. Why not? One option is that you can keep being anxious about this COVID vaccine and it's not going anywhere. The other is that you can actually start to take control over your anxiety and get your life back. And this stuff works. If you don't believe me, check out the testimonials on our website. This stuff is amazing. It's changing lives. And that's my heart and my passion is to give you the hope that you deserve to get your life back. Anxiety doesn't have to run the show. And I know today we're talking a lot about the COVID vaccine, but oftentimes these parts have things to say about other things too, right? Not just the vaccine. And so if anxiety has been taking center stage and if you're tired of being a sidekick to anxiety and if you want to be the protagonist of your story, you can do that. And I want to help you. And I want to help you for free. So let's do this. Click the link in the notes and I'm going to be here for you. Also, we have a private Facebook group where if you want to ask questions, I'm in there really often. So is Haley. Haley is my right hand sister and we are here to provide all of the support and all of the care and all of the love and resources that we can so use these free resources. We're all in this together. You don't have to be alone. So this has been. Dr. Nicole and I will be here every week and if you have any questions or if there's anything that I can do, let us know and jump in the group. And today we've been talking about COVID vaccine anxiety. And if you know anybody that is anxious about this, she share this video with them. Give them hope. All you have to do is click the share button and you can send it to them privately. You can put it on your wall. That also helps for the algorithm so that people have access to this information. And so if you like it, if this is valuable, let us know. Leave us a note if you can hit that little, like, button. And then I'll be back next week. I love you. I honor you. I'll see you guys later. Bye.