Mental Health and COVID-19: Key Areas, Trends and Solution
By Aisha Bubah, Lead Psychologist at The Sunshine Series & Praise Olarinde, Content Writer at The Mind Wheel
Website|Twitter| Facebook| Instagram | LinkedIn| YouTube
The year has rolled out a series of devastating experiences that the average person didn’t see coming. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, it has had an impact on us and millions of people are still figuring out how to cope and respond to an event no one had experienced before.
At first, we thought it was just another breaking news that the media spun out of proportion. From “rising cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China… A hospital built in ten days…Canadian PM tested positive for coronavirus…,” little did we know that the next breaking news was going to literally break our hearts. The health sector rolled out preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus and we had to stay at home to stay safe. This meant people losing their jobs, closing up their businesses and enterprises to limit the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, the virus spread across continents in less than four weeks like wildfire.
Ripples
In other words, the preventive measures meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus have led to mental stress for many. One lesson from the pandemic that stands out more than most is the key emphasis that everyone has mental health. This reflected in the increase in mental health concerns that were recorded during this period. According to the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRCRC, 2020), this pandemic has the potential to bring about an increase in domestic violence, substance abuse, and anxiety. The Mind Wheel Project for instance has recorded over 100 hours of counseling calls within the past few months. Mental health is not new, we’ve just been good at avoiding the conversation and it doesn’t just cease to exist by denying its existence.
Now more than ever, there is more worry and anxiety because of the economic downturn brought about by the lockdown. Many are filled with thoughts on where their next paycheck to pay bills and take care of their family would come from. There’s been a disruption of support systems and social connections, friends, and family to rely on aren’t available like they used to. Persons living in a domestic violent environment had restricted forms of escape during the quarantine. This is possibly why the UN termed domestic violence as the ‘shadow pandemic’ alongside COVID-19, which before the pandemic had a high prevalence rate of 1 in 3 women experiencing physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. The lockdown brought a major hindrance to their help-seeking behavior and puts them at risk of more harm. We’re faced with one of the greatest health and economic crises of our time with no precise recovery time for all of these. All these factors are potential triggers for mental distress.
Therefore, we need to stop pretending that everything is ok.
It’s Not Ok Until It Is
There is no denying that we’re all going through tough times and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. If you’re feeling anxious, depressed, terrified, exhausted, overwhelmed, or what-have-you, you’re not alone. There are millions of people having similar feelings with you and you don’t have to fight this battle of psychological distress all by yourself. People have generally been used to bottling up their feelings and using work or negative coping mechanisms to deal with them. We’re often scared to deal with our thoughts, acknowledge our emotions and mental health challenges.
Nonetheless, if we’re going to survive this pandemic and get back on track with our lives, we need to restructure how we deal with distress. There is a high need to make mental health a priority in our workplaces, schools, and community. The more we have this key conversation, the better we get at building our individual resilience and fostering community resilience, which the world strongly needs in high doses to recover from the impact of this pandemic. This is what our community and services are committed to doing in our own little way. There is no disputing that we’re all going through this together, so do not feel weird in wanting to seek help. Together, we can come out strong. When the wave of the coronavirus passes as we optimistically anticipate, you would need ‘you’ to be at optimum capacity.
To book a free counseling session on our ‘Mind Wheel’ COVID-19 response project, send a message to +2348189182778 or +2347056233908 or email themindwheel@gmail.com.
References
Coronavirus: Domestic violence ‘increases globally during lockdown’ https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-53014211 2nd Oct. 2020
The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against women during COVID19. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19 2nd Oct., 2020
