*3.4. Personal Feeling and Emotional Reactions*

Mostly negative feelings were encountered in our patients' sample; 67% experienced fear, distress, anger, frustration, impotence, negative mood, and feeling of neglection; and 33% showed ambivalent emotions, with co-existence of astonishment, confusion, doubt, curiosity, and uncertainty alongside the need to protect their beloved ones.

Seventy percent of controls manifested aloneness, anxiety, concern, fear of the unknown, fear of contamination, sharing difficulties, pessimism, mood depression, sadness, and feeling of being in a surreal condition. On the contrary, 20% had a positive mood characterized by adaption, respect, positive dependence, and ability to find incitements and new energies; the remaining 10% showed ambivalent aspects with a hard and pessimistic approach, despite a feeling of well-being. In sum, the proportion of subjects suffering negative or positive feelings was not significantly different in the two groups (*X*2(1, *N* = 25) = 0.2, *p* = 0.902).
