Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, which has now reached the pandemic status, almost effected all first world, second world countries, the world is in the state of crisis, quite evidently. Millions of lives have been altered, on different levels. Concern, stress, fear all very natural and normal reactions to the uncertain situation unfolding so rapidly with different dimensions that we happen to find ourselves in.
Now, in the situation of the widespread disease with no cure people are fearing death and the government trying to intensify their efforts to manage the pandemic through collective public health intervention measures and common folks coming together to help, showing remarkable cooperation, one aspect is largely ignored, that of Mental Health.
Experts have advised us to ‘stay in’, making quarantine the most preventive measure, but staying in comes with a bonus, that of potentially long term detrimental impact on mental health.
Being a collectivistic culture highly dependent on socialization (social support and social connectedness) has been critical towards self-isolation and social-distancing and are reluctantly dealing with emotional, psychological, behavioral impacts. Confusion, frustration, stress, anxiety, PTSD all triggered by uncontrolled events of the ongoing crisis, moving from mainstream to largely ignored conditions like depression, self harm, unintentional or intentional harm to family members, helplessness, substance abuse, sleeping problems you name it!
We humans are social animals and we cannot stay in a confined area and communicate with just few people everyday we had a habit of meeting new people daily and engaging in new stuff every now and then and staying in homes has made a huge impact on all individuals. They are hoping for all of this to end soon so that they can move out of their houses and return to their normal lives. Some are scared that what if they will not be able to live the normal life again and this makes the minds uncertain of the near future. Apart from the lockdown for pandemic one must also believe that mental health is very important just to make sure one is happy not only from the outside but from the inside too and maintain peace.
People can manage mental peace and harmony through meditation, proper diet, healthy fruits and vegetables, learning new skills and exercising and most importantly following a proper routine. And also to check on one another if the other is doing fine or not. This will ensure that everyone is not just safe physically but are also having peaceful minds and if not communication can heal the gaps and make a person feel less burdened.
