Finding calm in chaos: Mental health at time of coronavirus
The past week has been momentous, to say the least, as we oscillate somewhere between panic and confusion. On March 18, a tweet by Asia News International (ANI) reporting a suicide at Safadarjung Hospital in New Delhi popped up on Tanmoy Goswami’s Twitter feed. I reached out to Dr Smriti Joshi, lead clinical psychologist at Wysa, to understand the impacts on mental health in these unprecedented times. This virus outbreak has triggered a ‘psychological pandemic’, and I would love to talk about it, was her prompt reply.
Uncertain times
A tense air of uncertainty looms, and the rich repository of COVID-19 information available on the news and social media, poses a new mental health challenge, especially for those already living with depression, OCD, and anxiety disorders.
“Over the past three weeks, every conversation I’ve had with my patients has pertained to the coronavirus. It’s a period of uncertainty for everyone, but for people who’ve already been living with disorders, it’s especially tempestuous. It often feels like they’re walking around in the rain with an umbrella riddled with holes. At Wysa, we’ve even taken the step of opening up all services on our app for free to anyone who needs it,” reveals Dr Joshi.
Deleting all her social media accounts could be the solution, thought Trishia Santhus, 23, addressing the anxiety that arose watching her friends and family, unprotected, while she decided to distance herself at home. “I’ve had anxiety attacks in the past, and although I’m much better, my inability to protect loved ones has been a trigger,” she admits.
For Santhus, it’s a distress that projects outwards; but in journalist Abinaya Kalyanasundaram’s case, diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, the stress faces inwards. “As someone who’s immuno-compromised already, it’s a scary time. I’m back home and keeping up with news outlets, but with a scheduled colonoscopy in two weeks, I’m still unsure of the next steps,” she says. Adding to the list of worries is her diet consisting of only fruits and vegetables, goods that have fallen victim to hoarders, and the availability of her Siddha medication. These stories, a witness to the mental impact of a disease, can also be traced to an avalanche of news stressors, a topic – the sanity correspondent at a Dutch news website, The Correspondent – Tanmoy Goswami knows, all too well.
Fuelling anxiety
“The Indian media’s vocabulary for reporting suicide and mental health phenomena is outmoded and only results in long-lasting stigmatisation,” he explains. Educating the ANI over Twitter, on its headline of ‘suspected COVID-19 patient committed suicide’, he clarifies that it ought to read as ‘patient dies of suicide’; a more humane statement that doesn’t criminalise. “In Indian society, there’s a pattern of that if you don’t understand something, it degenerates into panic and the criminalising of behaviour that we don’t consider as ‘normal’ on the news. These headlines further fuel the anxiety, when already we seem to be in a dystopic situation of everywhere we look, it feels like the end of the world,” reiterates Tanmoy.
As media scrutiny and hyper-vigilance permeate this psychological pandemic, acceptance of this trail-mix of emotions and connecting with others are critical, says Dr Joshi. “We should not be negating our experiences as we socially distance ourselves, but rather, validating it through reaching out to others, emotionally. Let’s refer to this as ‘physical-distancing’ rather than ‘social-distancing,” she adds.
In a nutshell
A tense air of uncertainty looms, and the rich repository of COVID-19 information available on the news and social media, poses a new mental health challenge, especially for those already living with depression, OCD, and anxiety disorders. This virus outbreak, in other words, has triggered a ‘psychological pandemic’,