COVID-19 and Mental Health

The coronavirus and its fluctuating worldwide spread had affected all of us to a greater extent. The frequently stretched lockdowns, keeping our distances and changes in all our routines have exhausted us a lot. Wherever in the world you are this virus is raising health concerns among people and due to this people are trying to take care of those who are sick and preventing getting sick themselves.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has all information on the prevention and treatment of Covid 19 but the circumstances go beyond physical health. Many recent studies have found out that there are many associations of this virus that relate to our mental health, too. So it is crucial to taking care of our mental health during this pandemic. Knowing its potential impact on us is part of that. That is how we are affected by it and how we are actually facing it every day.

Here are 6 effects of COVID 19 on us

1. Anxiety and Stress 

The most common effect of the global spread is stress and anxiety. Stressing about what has happened to what is going to happen is something every person has thought about these days. These thoughts mainly include you thinking about what gonna happen in future or what gonna happen to our economic future. our income is affecting. we don't know what is going to happen a few months from now.

We don't know what the world is going to look like a few months from now. This is what Generalized Anxiety is like, when you experience so many worries about everyday tasks, about the future, and it gets very hard to control those worries and that makes you feel very tense, affects your everyday routine and makes it very hard to be present in the environment.

2. Depression 

Depression in people is found to be increased recently. This is mainly due to the temporary stop to things we might love to do and the increase in the stress levels in the surroundings, family and friends. These might make you feel unproductive, sad and irritated. Just like one of my friends asked "I don't understand why I have such low energy, and I feel really irritable and tired even though I haven't done much, I've been at home and also I've been drinking so much more coffee to freshen up but nothing seems to work", and to give it a thought this is like Depression. Neither you have normal routines nor getting a lot of activities to be done. Your not getting a lot of sunlight. So this exhaustion you may be feeling, the irritability is the same thing when someone is experiencing depression for a long time.

3. Loneliness and Autophobia 

Loneliness doesn't only limit to being or staying alone. It can also be felt when you are around people or even when you are with the family. It is the feeling of missing too. It could be missing your friends, school, work and people you work or live with. This happens due to the fact that essentially our brains are inborn to feel safe knowing we can turn to others if we need to. Stress hormones like adrenaline are released into our nervous system by the acute stress response area in our brain due to the feeling of Loneliness. And if we stay in that state of alert for a long time it starts having a physical effect on our body. Like on our digestive and immune systems gets weaker. These feelings of loneliness further make a person phobic to it causing autophobia.

4. Agoraphobia 

One thing that most of us want is to get back are those connectivities like before but a break in those can make us feel anxious and could lead us to the path of agoraphobia. These feelings are like someone saying "I've been feeling so stuck in myself like I just want to get myself out of it because I want to be outside but I can't. " this desire to get connected with people and day to day normal life, this desire to be outside, but something that tells you, you can't is what agoraphobia is like.

5. Post Trauma and Trauma

I realised what trauma is like and what is to go through a post-traumatic experience when I went to the grocery store. I was so exhausted from the entire experience since I had to monitor my hands, make sure I'm not touching my face, being very cautious of other surfaces and trying to keep my distance from other people to protect them and to protect myself.

It was draining being on safeguard, being hyper-vigilant, seeing immense danger in the environment and trying to navigate around that danger.

6. OCD 

This is something that is happening to most of us and you might have not realised it.

Just after coming home from the grocery store, I went through the ritual of sanitizing everything. I made sure that I'm cleaning my hands, clothes and washing everything. And I also emphasised not touching anyone or anything until everything including me has cleaned up. But then always having a doubt in my head whether had I touched something or if everything actually sanitized well or not and this made me feel not really being completely clean. So many doubts and uncertainty is just like a person going through OCD. We feel the urge to engage in the process again and again without being totally satisfied.

The above-mentioned effects do not mean that we are suffering from mental illnesses. It's natural and to and extend normal to face and feel them as "pandemic" thing is new, unexpected and we were unprepared too.

But when you or any person you know who is not able to cope up with it might need some help. One must seek help for themselves or the sufferers you know from the professional without a delay.

And never ever forget we are in this together. :)