From dining out at favorite restaurants, partying till late nights, the loud music in clubs, trekking to breathtaking and amazing destinations, the unprecedented covid-19 has changed our lives within a blink and going out to favorite destinations and partying hard has become once in a blue moon. For the past 8 months, we are isolating ourselves in the house, limiting our visits, and suspecting people with flu as corona positive we have developed a sense of fear and anxiety. After the covid-19 pandemic, we have become more conscious of our hygiene, cleanliness, and sanitization meanwhile our stress has increased as becoming over conscious of everything.
An estimated 31% of all adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life and due to this deadly virus, more people will continue to feel anxious easily. Besides that, the economic downturn due to the corona pandemic around the globe has left many of us jobless or has reduced the level of income. In Nepal alone, 22.5% of the workers had been laid off to contain coronavirus. Many daily wage earners are struggling to have their two times meal, while many are unclear when they will be able to return back to work. These have increased mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, or even suicidal thoughts.
We are still unclear when the vaccine will be developed when the world will be free of the covid-19 virus and in this situation, people are having a hard time. Those who find difficulty to handle uncertainty and aren’t good at dealing with this time are stressing a lot. The people who cannot better cope with the uncertainty are supposed to have a long-term impact on mental health.
Nowadays many people are struggling with viruses and mental health issues. Due to social distancing new space within the home has become a new platform for many to fulfill their hobbies while many have a fear if they could be able to return back to normal lives. To contain the virus many parents have communicated to their children that the virus is more deadly which has negatively affected the psychology of the children.
Amidst the pandemic, mental health issues are raising and many countries have started measuring the impact of a pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of the general population. Steven Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics, and professor in psychiatry at the University of British Columbia argues that “for an unfortunate minority of people, perhaps 10 to 15%, life will not return to normal”. In the UK, a group of leading public health specialists recently warned in the British Medical Journal that “the mental health impact of the pandemic is likely to last much longer than the physical health impact”.
So, in this global outbreak, people need to be more careful about their mental health along with physical health. The vaccine might be developed someday, we might speedily recover from viruses through medication but it really takes a long time to return back to sound mental health. Though there are many negative aspects of this deadly virus, there are few positive aspects where we can balance our mental health. Let’s develop a positive attitude and strong willpower to get victory over deadly viruses but before that ensure that you and people around you are mentally and emotionally feeling secure.
Binita is the Editor of MeroTribune. She joined us in September 2020. She handles the role of Public Relations Executive at Prisma Advertising and has been actively working with Xiaomi Nepal. Before Joining Prisma, she worked at Suvadin Media and Research Center for 1.5 Years. She is also a student of Master in Economics at Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus. She can be contacted here.
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