People rationalise that the severity of the situation justified Hancock’s intention to ‘scare the pants’ off us. Some people outright deny the authenticity of the messages, others claim they have been ‘cherry-picked’ to create a one-sided narrative. Since Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages were published last week, we have seen some of these defence mechanisms kick in. So you adopt psychological defence mechanisms, such as denial, minimisation, rationalisation and projection.’ It is very traumatic to realise you were lied to by people you trusted and did things that were damaging. The mind only lets you see what it thinks you can handle. Re-engineering your idea of reality is painful and difficult. ‘Research shows that brain activity spikes when you are presented with something that doesn’t make sense and doesn’t fit with your expectations. ‘Cognitive dissonance is when you encounter information that contradicts how you perceive the world and doesn’t fit into your idea of reality,’ says psychologist Patrick Fagan. It’s easier to believe that un-evidenced (and sometimes pointless) measures like wearing masks, standing on spaced dots, and staying at home for months were necessary, than to admit to being conned by disproportionate levels of fear. No one likes to believe they can be manipulated, let alone that they have been manipulated. Their stories reveal the human cost of the Government’s use of propaganda, behavioural psychology and weaponisation of fear during the pandemic, conclusively exposed in The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files. Yet there are still those who choose not to see it. These are just some examples of the hidden victims of the pandemic I encountered while researching my book A State of Fear. The rise in alcohol-related deaths, drugs relapses and Covid Anxiety Syndrome have been well-documented. Men told me about OCDs, anxiety, agoraphobia and PTSD. Jimmy’s mother found him after he made an attempt on his life. Eventually she needed medication to cope with anxiety induced by the fear-mongering. She would wake up every day trembling from head to foot with anxiety attacks. As she said, ‘gruesome headlines came thick and fast’. She watched the Downing Street briefings and read the news every day. Jane told me that when lockdown started she felt a ‘cloak of anxiety’ settle on her shoulders. At the age of nine he took an overdose to escape the fear. In fact, he would not leave the ‘four wall boundary’ for weeks and barely left the bed on which he slept, ate and did homework. The nine-year-old boy was so terrified of coronavirus that he wouldn’t go to school during lockdown, despite being entitled to as a vulnerable child. Sanobar and her son lived in a single room accommodation. Even psychologists who advised the Government describe their actions as 'dystopian'.There is now conclusive proof that we were scared to make us comply with lockdown.
No one likes to believe they can be manipulated, let alone that they have been manipulated.
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