Thought Stopping Therapy to Anxiety Level on COVID-19 Pandemic ERA

Abstract

COVID-19 has become a worldwide health pandemic due to the increasing death rate. This causes a variety of responses, one of which looks like anxiety. Thought Stopping becomes one of the therapies that can be done in lowering anxiety. This study aimed to look at the effect of thought-stopping therapy on anxiety levels in the COVID-19 pandemic era. The research design used was a quasi-experiment intervention and the control group used the valid questionnaire, COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index questionnaire to pre-test and post-test. The population in this study was people who experienced anxiety caused by COVID-19 in Pekanbaru city with a total of 32 control groups and 32 interventions with inclusion criteria sample: (1) Located in Pekanbaru area; (2) Willing to be a respondent; (3) not in panic attacks; (4) Not taking anti-depressant and anxiety drugs. As the result of this study, there was a difference in anxiety levels between the intervention and control groups (p value = 0.000). The conclusion, Thought Stopping could be used as one method in lowering anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.