The word ‘pandemic’ – over the past couple of years has left a huge impact on every individual’s mind which manifests in the form of fear, anxiety, worry, restlessness, and an amalgamation of many more feelings and emotions.
Amidst the recent covid pandemic, in addition to the horrifying symptoms caused by the virus on the human body, another strain of an unknown virus had been creeping not into the bodies, but the human minds and spreading its infection there which takes no time to spread.
This is when the doctors and researchers stated,” It's not so far when we witness the next pandemic, which will be the mental health pandemic.” One of the primary causes starts from the effect people have had in their minds due to the presence of the covid virus.
The concept of lockdown for everyone in the present date had just been in history books in the past pandemics.
But once it had to be executed and experienced by people today, it was quite disturbing for many. Nowadays most of us do not have a habit of sitting at home for more than a maximum of 2 days! Either work, school, or college, or just roaming with friends and families. But this time, it was a complete change!
All the time sitting at home, cannot step out of houses, in emergency cases witnessing police and barricades, and along with this, watching and listening to just negativity all around concerning to increasing cases and fatalities day by day.
With such a sight, it is a very natural feeling to get low and negative and most importantly feel the fear of getting infected or seeing family members getting infected. The accumulation of these emotions started taking a toll on the mental health of people, which was bought into their awareness at a little later stage.
Since my mother, Dr. Keerti Kukreja is a psychotherapist, at our home during the lockdown witnessed so many calls and cases from people to address their mental health, that it was bizarre. She says," Mental illness is unknown, unidentified, unacknowledged, unpleasant, incessant and painful noise of one's mind."
It is not that the mental health of people is deteriorating because of the covid pandemic, but this just acted as a catalyst to get it onto the surface.
This issue has been like the elephant in the room, due to many factors like lack of awareness, or even being shy and reluctant to be open about it. Ironically thanks to the presence of the coronavirus, this issue also has been started addressing.
Anxiety, stress, and depression - a few of the most commonly seen issues in the general population are seen in every second home. Nowadays, these things are very common to encounter people and the best way to deal with them is not to suppress them - which is usually done, which makes it worse. The only way to make things better is to accept and move forward with its relevant solution.
Mental health issues can be prevented from being the next pandemic by first creating awareness about the importance and existence of mental health as a serious issue, rather than underestimating it and pushing it under the carpet.
Once it is out in the open, it will be hard to ignore its presence and repercussions - since not only the mind but also it will affect the body with various symptoms which are known as psychosomatic illnesses and diseases.
As WHO mentions in layman's terms that being healthy is not just about staying away from physical ailments and diseases, but also being holistically healthy which includes mental health as well. Health comes in a package and one cannot ignore any aspect of it to lead a beautiful and successful life ahead!
