If we rewind to some 10-20 years from nowand think of a situation where the entire country goes under a lockdown, itwould probably sound no less than an unbelievable and amusing situation, ofwhere one could think of writing a book about. Ironically, fast forward tocurrent times, this is every bit of reality.
Mental Health has severely shaken a lot ofpeople in the world. It comes down to this basic psychology I think, that whatis been told not to do, is something the mind desires to do even more. Thereare different aspects to it as well, now. It depends on how someone’s situationis at that point in time. For example, a friend of mine got stuck in aNaturopathy Hospital in Bangalore, due to the sudden announcement of lockdown.She is all alone but is positively looking forward and maintaining her calm.
On the other hand, I have a friend whoalthough lives with her family but is miserable in being caught up in asituation like this. Reason: Mental Health issue. She is not the only one whofeels that way, there are in-fact a lot of people who have been massivelyaffected by this entire situation of being asked to stay inside their homes.Needless to say, that is extremely important also for everybody to do it, andeveryone is abiding by that too; however, it doesn’t make it easy for people tocope-up with the whole scenario all the time.
“Recent research by the University ofSheffield and Ulster University observed a spike in depression and anxietyafter the Prime Minister’s announcement of a lockdown on 23 March. 38 percentof study participants reported significant depression and 36 percent reportedsignificant anxiety. On the day before the announcement, 16 percent reportedsignificant depression and 17 percent reported significant anxiety. Ratesremained elevated later in the week, but not as high as immediately after theannouncement, with just over 20 percent on each subsequent day reportingsignificant levels of depression and anxiety”, according to the largerepresentative study of the pandemic’s impact on mental health reported by theofficial website of the University of Sheffield.
On the other hand, in India, according to arecent survey conducted by the Indian Psychiatry Society, there has been a 20percent rise in mental illness cases. The lockdown has completely changedpeople’s lifestyles as their movements are restricted. Isolation, socialdistancing, uncertainty in jobs, constant fear of contracting the virus arecausing panic and anxiety attacks among the people. Online consultation atPracto which is growing at a rate of 100 percent week on week has been seeing asteep rise in the number of consults coming in for psychiatry.
According to the Practo Health Insights,Mental health has seen a significant growth among online consult users inIndia, not just in metro cities but also for people from non-metro citiesfollowing the lockdown. Online queries for psychiatry on Practo’s eConsultplatform grew by 50 percent in the last two weeks. Most of the queries arecoming from people in the age group of 21-30. There has been a significantincrease in the number of consultations coming from people aged 60 and above.People in this age group are the second largest group in terms of mental healthqueries, only behind people in the 21-30 age group. 74 percent of all mentalhealth-related consults come from men, while 26 percent were from women.Queries on mental health grew by 80 percent in the metro cities in the last twoweeks while consultations in tier 2+ cities grew by 35 percent. Most of thequeries related to mental health were from Delhi NCR, followed by Bengaluru,Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai. In Non-T7 cities, most of the queriescame from Phagwara, Rewa, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur. Topqueries discussed were loneliness, anxiety and stress management, and panicattacks.
If we turn the tables and look at the#NetflixAndChill part, undoubtedly, it has been a lifesaver for a lot of peopleand is efficiently making it workable for them to pass their time. The socialmedia handles such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, andSnapchat are playing a good amount of role in being the distraction, for thegood mostly. The “meme” business is a cherry on that cake as people continue tolash these platforms with Quarantine jokes, etc. Another trend that seems tohave occupied the space of mind is the different types of “challenges”,”nominations” and “Bingo tags” that are being given to each other, which hastill now kept the game strong.
And then there are also people who havebeen keeping up their well-being intact by watching a lot of motivationalvideos available online on various social media platforms. Motivationalspeakers like Nic Vujicic, Jay Shetty, Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Felicia Hatcherand the likes are increasingly trying to reach out to people as much as theycan, and their videos and messages are also making a good amount of differencein helping people deal with the negative thoughts that come along with the lockdown.
In these times of testing, what we allshould possibly try and do, is to step up further and enquire about our lovedones. Mental Health is an immensely important topic that needs to be dealt withrigorously, and we all should try and garner support to anyone and everyone inneed. Ending this piece with what my PhD Guide, Dr. Nandini Sahay shared withme a couple of days back that made me more optimistic to help people in need,is a belief by India’s first female Psychiatrist – Dr. Sarada Menon –”Compassion and kindness are the languages which the deaf can hear, the blindcan see, and the mentally ill can understand”.
Nadia Ahmad is Sr. Project Officer – Bosco Organization for Social Concern and Operation (BOSCO) & PhD Scholar Amity Institute of Social Sciences, Amity University, Noida