Covid-19: Rise in mental health issues indicates need to change our priorities
Anxiety and Depression are symptoms of mental health disorders. Many reasons can lead to cause mental illness. We often never get to know who is suffering from mental health issues. According to WHO, every one person among five is suffering from mental health issues across the globe.
What is a mental health disorder?
Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions that affect your thinking, behavior, and mood. Mental illness consists of problems like anxiety disorders, Depression, eating behavior, addictive behaviors, and schizophrenia. Mental health is concerned over when signs and symptoms cause constant stress and affect your ability to function and perform your day to day activities.
Mental health disorders can cause problems in your daily life and make you miserable, such as at your workplace or in relationships. According to WHO, health disorders can be treated with doctors, friends, and family.
Symptoms of mental health issues
Different types of health disorders have different types of signs and symptoms. Signs and symptoms depend on the kind of disorder, circumstances, and other factors. Mental health problems can affect your behavior, physical activity, activeness, thoughts, and emotions.
Some of the symptoms are as follows:
- You can feel sad or down thought the day.
- You may feel confused or lead to reduce your ability to concentrate.
- They are chances of excess fears and worries or can be some extreme feelings of guilt.
- There can be absolute mood swings of high and low.
- Distancing yourself from friends and activities.
- There can be significant tiredness, low energy, and problem-related to sleeping.
- You may get detached from delusions or can get hallucinations
- You can generate an inability to cope with problems related to daily life or stress of anything.
- You can get trouble in understanding that can be connected to situations and people.
- You may get addicted to or problems with alcohol or drug use.
- There can be noticeable changes in eating habits.
- You may experience a shift in sex drives.
- You may get excessive anger, hostility, or become violent.
- You may get suicidal thoughts.
Even it is possible that sometimes you may get some physical problems such as headaches, stomach pain, back pain, or other unexplained aches and pains due to your mental health disorder.
When to seek help from a doctor?
When you feel any symptom of mental illness, you can immediately seek help from a psychiatrist or mental health expert. Many mental health problems don’t recover on its own and can cause you more and severe issues if untreated. It is best to get treatment of mental illness before it gets worse with time and create your most severe matters.
Suicidal thoughts
Suicidal thoughts are familiar with mental health disorders. But if you get them, you should do things such as:
- Talk to your doctor.
- Talk to your friends.
- Reach out to your parents.
- You can seek help from any spiritual leader.
Suicidal thoughts don’t end up striking your mind on its own. You will have to remove them and stop them from hitting you.
Suicide is never an option! Think about your loved ones, parents, friends. We all get life once! It would be best if you did not destroy it in this way.
What are the causes of mental illness?
The cause of mental health disorders depends on three factors:
- Inherited Traits: Mental health problems are common in people whose blood relatives have suffered from psychological health-related issues. Several genes may increase your risk of developing a mental illness and may trigger your life situation.
- Environmental exposure before birth: Having alcohol, drugs, toxins, exposure to inflammatory conditions, and environmental stressors can sometimes lead the child to mental illness.
- Chemistry of brain: If the neural networks that involve Neurotransmitters become impaired, the function of nerve receptors and nerve systems change can lead you to Depression and other emotional disorders. Neurotransmitters are chemicals released by the brain that carry signals to other parts of your brain and body.
The risk factors related to mental illness
Several risk factors can lead you to mental health disorder, such as:
- A record of mental health problems in a blood relative, such as your parent or sibling.
- The stressful life conditions like financial problems or the death of a loved one or a divorce.
- Any brain damage or severe injury or a violent blow to the head can lead to mental illness.
- Any past traumatic experiences, such as military combat or sexual harassment.
- Consumption of alcohol or drugs.
- A past of childhood abuse or neglect.
- Abusive relationships or break-ups.
Mental illness can happen at any age, starting from childhood through adult years, but most of the cases begin in the early stage of life. The effects of mental health problems can be temporary or can long last. There are chances that you can have more than one mental health problem at the same time; for instance, you may have Depression and a substance use disorder.
Complications related to mental illness
Untreated mental health sickness can lead you to serious behavioral, emotional, and physical health-related issues. Difficulties can be linked to mental health disorder include:
- Unhappiness.
- Conflicts between family.
- Problems are related to relationships.
- Issues related to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs
- Matters related to workplace, school, or college.
- Problems related to legal and financial concerns.
- Suicide or homicide.
- Issues related to medical conditions such as heart disease.
Prevention from a mental health disorders
There’s no proven way to prevent mental health sickness. Take these steps to prevent mental illness:
- Please pay attention to symptoms: Take consultancy from your doctor or therapist and take his advice and get rid of your mental illness. Take proper consultancy from your doctor to keep a record of what to do if symptoms return. Contact your therapist if you notice any change in your behavior or trait. Also, Consider involving family members or friends to watch for warning signs.
- Get routine medical care. Don’t skip your checkups and visit your doctor frequently. Also, don’t skip medicines and focus on a healthy and proper diet.
- Get help when you need it. Don’t wait for your mental health conditions symptoms to get worse and hard to treat if symptoms get worse. Long-term treatment may help to prevent mental illness symptoms.
- Take good care of yourself. Take proper sleep, eat healthily, and regularly essential for sooner recovery and maintain a regular schedule. Take consultancy from your primary care provider if you are witnessing trouble sleeping or having questions about diet and physical activity.
Rise in mental health issues amid lockdown
Mental health issues have increased amid lockdown. There have been many changes after COVID-19 entered the world. Approx 197·3 million people were suffering from mental disorders in India before Covid-19 arrival. It includes 45·7 million people with depressive disorders and 44·9 million with anxiety disorders. The impact due to the pandemic COVID-19 and fall in the economy will lead to having a massive effect on Indians in the upcoming time.
The primary reason behind more mental health issues due to pandemic COVID-19
- Many people have become jobless. Whether they are migrant laborers or executive managers in an MNC. Undoubtedly people who won’t be having any income opportunity will become slaves to the past savings. Their lifestyles will get hampered, and they will focus on sustaining themselves at a low cost of living.
- No upcoming job opportunity in India has to lead a state of contradiction among freshers who were preparing themselves to face an interview.
- People are working from home and getting isolated at their homes; this can even lead to Depression.
- Conflicts in the family.
- For women, domestic violence, marital rape cases, abusive behavior can also lead to mental health disorders.
- Taking stress by thinking about future conditions.
- Quarantined due to pandemic COVID-19.
How mental health disorders can increase your chances to get infected through the pandemic COVID-19
Mental health disorders affect your immune system. High-stress levels affect your immunity, whereas COVID-19 is the disease that attacks the immune system. You won’t be able to recover from the pandemic if your immune system is low. This deadly disease can only be retrieved if you have a robust immune system.
The nation is witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases every day. Take precautions and don’t let your immune system to become weak. If you might get attacked by the pandemic, you will survive and recover if your immune system is healthy.
Types of mental disorders India is suffering from due to the widespread of COVID-19
People are suffering from types of mental health disorders such as:
Depression
Depression is a common mental health disorder. It is among the most common found disability worldwide. Across the globe, an estimated 264 million people are affected by Depression. And overall, reports show women are more affected than men by Depression.
Characteristics of Depression are sadness, low self-worth, loss of interest, feelings of guilt, improper sleep or imbalanced appetite, tiredness, and poor concentration. People with Depression may have many physical illnesses with no visible physical cause. Depression can be long-lasting and substantially impair people’s ability to work and cope with day-to-day activities. Depression can lead to Suicide and self-destruction at its most severe.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder affects about 45 million people across the globe. It consists of both panic and depressive demonstrations separated by periods of healthy mood. Panic incidents involve rapid speech, elevated or irritable mood, inflated self-esteem, over-activity, and a limited need for sleep. People are suffering from panic attacks but do not witness depressive attacks are classified as having bipolar disorder.
Effective treatments are available to treat the acute phase of bipolar disorder and to prevent it from loss. Also, there are medications available that stabilize mood. It would be best if you had consultancy from the doctor to recover from the disorder.
Schizophrenia and other psychoses
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affected 20 million people across the world. Psychoses include schizophrenia characterized by distortions in emotions, sense of self, thinking, language, perception, and behavior. Everyday psychotic experiences include hallucinations that mean hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there and delusions that are fixed false beliefs or suspicions that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary. This disorder can make it difficult for people affected to work or study.
Schizophrenia initiates in late adolescence or early adulthood. Treatment with medicines and psychosocial support can help in recovering. With appropriate treatment and social support, affected people can lead a healthy life and be combined.
Dementia
Dementia has caused around 50 million individuals over the world. Dementia is a chronic nature where there is decay in an individual capacity, i.e., the ability to process thought past and caused increasingly anticipated from sound maturing. It influences memory, thinking, direction, cognizance, count, learning limit, language, and judgment. The weakness in intellectual capacity ordinarily went with and at times went before by decay in enthusiastic control, social conduct, or inspiration.
Dementia is brought about by different illnesses and wounds that influence the mind, such as Alzheimer’s sickness or stroke. Even though there is no treatment right now accessible to fix dementia or modify its dynamic course, numerous medicines are in different phases of clinical preliminaries. Much should be possible, notwithstanding, to improve the lives of individuals with dementia and their carers and families.
Developmental disorders, including autism
The developmental disorder is an umbrella term covering intellectual handicaps and unavoidable developmental issues, including mental imbalance. The developmental disorder usually has a youth beginning; however will, in general, endure into adulthood, making hindrance or postponement in capacities related to the focal sensory system development. For the most part, they follow a consistent course as opposed to the times of lessenings and backslides that describe numerous psychological issues.
Intellectual inability is portrayed by the disability of abilities over different formative zones, for example, personal working and versatile conduct. Lower knowledge decreases the capacity to adjust to the day by day activities of life.
Symptoms of pervasive development disorder, such as chemical imbalance, incorporate impeded social conduct, correspondence and language, and a tight scope of interests and exercises that are both one of a kind to the individual and are made casually. Developmental issues frequently begin in the outset or youth. Individuals with these scatter at times show some level of scholarly incapacity.
Mental illness amid lockdown Case Study: Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide
Sushant Singh Rajput, the famous Bollywood star, debuted the Bollywood with Kai Po Che and committed Suicide on 14th June 2020 at his home at Bandra, Mumbai. He was suffering from the Depression that caused him death. Self-isolation took his life. There was nobody to listen to him amid lockdown and was facing his problems alone in a room where he hangs himself to death.
Many reports say that his death has a mystery of nepotism, but the psychological facts reveal that his aloneness leads him to commit Suicide. There were chances that we wouldn’t have taken this massive step if it was not a lockdown, and many of his friends and family could have helped him recover from his Depression. May his soul rest in peace! Lack of knowledge and understanding of the mental illness of society took another life.
Covid-19 patients committing Suicide
A 38-year-old COVID patient was transferred to Sharda Hospital by the Noida International Institute of Medical Sciences (NIIMS) after doctors found he may have attempted Suicide. Another Covid-19 patient had been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. She is under consideration.
Not only this, but some of the people who were migrant laborers also committed Suicide for being jobless.
COVID-19 is affecting everyone across the country, whether he is a positive case or not.
Treatment of mental illness amid lockdown
- Things will come back to normal! Suicide is never an option! Don’t do this! Think about your loved ones.
- If you are feeling any signs of mental illness, immediately consult a doctor.
- Talk to your family and friends.
- If you have been locked with your family, spend some time with them, explain your situation and try to recover from the illness by their help.
- Jobs are not available now! But it will be available in the future. Have faith and patience.
- Keep yourself busy, cook food, read books, or do whatever you want to do to feel happy. Love yourself and restart your life to recover the mental health problems.
We all can just hope that things become normal soon! Till then, we have to hope and pray for our well-being. Never give up on anything! We all have to fight against this pandemic COVID-19 and sustain ourselves. Offices, colleges, schools, and other institutions will soon open completely, and situations will change.
