The pandemic spared no aspects of ordinary life on this planet. The effects of the necessary but challenging social distancing and quarantine norms took a massive toll on the health of millions, and we are yet to find out its lasting generational effects.
Amongst a mammoth list of hardships, devastations and societal blunders falling under the purview of the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health stood at a significantly high spot.
Mental health, which, to the general public, is the seemingly intangible measure of emotional and social well-being, was a topic that only recently gained the license of being openly talked.
Despite its recent recognition as a serious condition that has the potential to have highly negative impacts on the well-being of society, many societies choose to either ignore or forbid the awareness surrounding it—focusing on one’s mental health as much as one’s physical health is a relatively new concept with the former being a taboo and shame for many centuries.
Humans need to form a society and thrive in it, and studies have constantly shown that isolation leads to a plethora of mental and physical issues in a person. Sleep impairments, low quality of life, depression, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, low executive ability, cognitive decline, lower immunity and many more such conditions can be directly linked to isolation and social exclusion.
The novel coronavirus is a virus that is highly contagious and could spread quickly in gatherings and social settings. Hence the entire world went into a lockdown and crawled back into their homes for nearly two years to contain its spread and risks.
Apart from the devastating physical health effects and the global decline in many productive sectors, covid-19 took a toll on the mental health of millions.
The older population is highly susceptible to loneliness and associated effects, including higher suicide rates. Loneliness leads to a deconstruction of specific moral codes and compromises social belonging, further reinforcing isolation; this was identified with a significant segment of healthcare workers and children during the pandemic.
At its core, quarantine was a relatively privileged idea that assumed the availability of good homes and shelter for everyone. Still, in reality, the incidence of mental health crisis was much more profound amongst poorer segments of society and amongst wage workers, farmers, labourers, homeless families and migrant population who were stranded in their workplaces and makeshift homes with poor hygiene and overcrowding.
This, paired with job loss and financial crisis, forces them to work against their mental and physical health and increases their depressive episodes and stress. It was true for healthcare workers, who were forced to treat patients during the health crisis and high death tolls paired with crucial decision making increased the stress, anxiety and depression levels in HCW from 29.8% to 67.5%.
Children were forced to stay at home in the most formative years of their lives and were barred from attending schools and colleges, an essential part of an individual’s growth. Although speculations have been made on the range of problems arising due to the shutting down of educational institutions, both for the economy and for a child’s mental and physical health, the long-term impacts are yet to be analyzed.
However, the increased uncertainty, grief, social exclusion, isolation, parental conflicts, stress, screen time and anxiety has risked the mental health of 330 million children worldwide.
The attention to social media also increased, causing a further dent in people’s cognitive constraints, especially teenagers, leading to delusion and stress related to the perceived “perfectionist” lifestyle.
Social media and its adverse impacts on one’s mental health are unknown and have tons of research material confirming it. However, using it as a last resort of socializing with others made it a tool to access growing children’s vulnerabilities, making them increasingly unsatisfied with their lives and fostering many such negative emotions.
The social stigma around mental health might have softened and partially debunked. However, it is still prevalent in segments that do not have the necessary channels to access such information and awareness of this topic. The pandemic placed a hard blow on the social structure of the society and a person’s place in it.
In the wake of this silent catastrophe, the easiest thing we can do as a society help each other spread awareness about the value of listening and communication in the timely and orderly detection of mental health deterioration.
