Mental Health Impact of COVID 19
COVID 19 Pandemic has put people in an unseen situation. Until the vaccine for the deadly disease has been developed, Social Distancing is an only key solution.
Human being is a social animal. Therefore the solution itself is a challenge for us. This pandemic has challenged our entire structure of society and pushed us to accept a “New Normal”. This way coronavirus is changing not only our external world but also our inner within.
Several reports and news articles have been published that say how the number of mental health patients got increased in this period. So I went a little bit ahead and did research on the mental health impact of COVID 19 and what is needed to be done. In this article, I am describing my findings and what process I followed.
Initial Thoughts
Surely this pandemic has brought fast changes before us. But some people are severely affected by this. The diagram below gives a glimpse.
Psychological Understanding of Pandemic
People are going through the phase of behavior change. To give my research an orientation, I looked upon a few of the psychological theories that explain what people face in this situation and how it affects their mental health. Psychiatry of Pandemics provides a detailed Psychological Understanding of Pandemic.
Behaviour is contagious.
“Spontaneous, unsolicited and uncritical imitation of another’s behavior” when people are sharing similar situations in panic. It assists them to resolve their conflict with the things that are going around them.
As people are going through the process of changing their behavior, they are influenced by their social networks, which can support or hinder them. People are seeing how trusted figures are publicly supporting these changes, feeling inspired by shared stories, and are getting emotional and practical support from their families and friends.
Insanity is contagious.
Infectious disease is an actual contagion and mental illness works as a symbolic contagion. We fear of zombies because we intentionally avoid logical thinking and allow ourselves to be feared by zombies while watching movies. Both zombies and mental illness is the idea of being taken over and losing one’s self-determination. Break this intention to treat mental illness.
Domain Research
I read survey-results conducted by various organizations and went through many social media posts and public discussions. Here are some of my findings.
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) has been found in many cases for a longer duration of the quarantine.
- Boredom and bad communication lead to frustration.
- Fear of infection and stigmatization of pandemic makes it worse.
- People are seeking many types of information from many different sources.
Key Insights
1. News Addiction
Pandemic has deeply affected the frequency of information intake. People are getting addicted to news articles, posts, and videos.
2. Religious Significance
Stigmatization of the problem is making it complex at the local level. Various interpretations of the religious text are playing a major role behind these stigmas. But it is not true that religiosity is acting completely negative. In some situations, religiosity is also giving hope.
3. Faith on Doctors
Those parts of the population where people do not have faith in doctors and authorities are experiencing mental illness higher than others. Even their test is negative, it is not easily believable for them. Building trust in doctors and authorities reduces anxiety to a significant level.
Key Challenges
1. The number of Psychiatrists is less as compared to the number of patients.
2. Time for detection and treatment of the disorder is limited.
Changes are happening fast. Hence our time is limited in case of mental illness too.
3. Lack of personal suggestions and feedback in existing solutions.
However, many mental health apps are available on the Play Store. But most of them are session-based. They lack personal suggestions and feedback that can invoke a sense of care and solidarity.
