sources taken from: https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/October-2019/Mental-Health-Conditions-Seen-in-Childhood and https://www.voicesofyouth.org/es/blog/coronavirus-y-salud-mental-tu-bienestar-puede-significar-la-supervivencia-de-los-demas
As all we know, the current pandemic that the world is going through is
due to coronavirus, “a disease type 2 of the severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS-CoV-2), also known as COVID-19” (González-Rodríguez & Labad, 2021). This
virus that spread in 2019 in China and now around the entire world, affects everyone
in different ways and it can even cause death. But the complication I want to
talk in this entry is mental health, a complication that affects people no
matter the age, gender or if you are infected or not. “Fear, worry, and stress
are normal responses to perceived or real threats, and at times when we are
faced with uncertainty or the unknown” ("Mental health and COVID-19",
n.d.), despite of the research made by the experts about this virus, and the
development of vaccines and the vaccination programs we are still scared of die,
we are still worried about our family, friends, and the others.
Every day on news we just hear about the numbers of infected people and deaths
outside and inside our country and it is alarming. As I cited before, being
stress and feel fear is very common in this situation, and this worry can scale
to anxiety, insomnia, among others. Also, for me, the fact of being in a
lockdown to reduce transmissions is frustrating. I need to go outside and not just
for buying food or the essential. I need to go to the university, hang out with
my friends, go for a walk, basically all the opposite of what I am forced to do
at this moment to “be healthy”, but the truth is, I’m not mentally healthy. Sometimes,
I feel I can’t breathe, I sleep as always but I do not feel I rested, I can
only think “when will this be over? Therefore, I can’t focus at all on my
duties, I can’t be efficient. I spoke by myself because I don’t know the
numbers, but I’m quite sure I’m not the only one.
González-Rodríguez,
A., & Labad, J. (2021). Salud mental en tiempos de la
COVID: reflexiones tras el estado de alarma. elsevier.es. Retrieved 5 May 2021, from https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-medicina-clinica-english-edition--462-articulo-mental-health-in-times-covid-S238702062030471X.
Mental health and COVID-19. Who.int. Retrieved 5 May 2021, from https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/covid-19.
Hello mate,
ResponderEliminarJust as you mentioned, you are not the only one who perceives life that way. I am also tired, stressed, fatigated, saturated of being all times in my house. It is mentally painful. I feel that life is almost monotonous. Wake up, attend to online classes, eat, "rest", do my homework or house duties, online class, eat, watch something, sleep. All has been this way.
Recently, mental health has been a priority with this crisis. Thankfully, everyone is now aware of the mental health, now they want to fight for keep it stable and healthy. Sadly, just nowadays, when millions of people have been suffering from mental diseases all their lives and not everyone paid attention to it or they simply did not care. It has to happen something very shocking or that involves us all to pay attention to that specific issue. A clear example is the University's behavior after some incidents involving suicides that they became even more active with the mental health issue. I do not want to say that our University have not paid attention to it, but not with the same intensity as they have done lately.
Nowadays, what we must try to do is to try to do different things, hang out with friends at least in videocall, play some games with them, watch movies with them. Every opportunity to change of environment must be taken, go for a walk, visit a friend, go to buy somethings. Talk about your feelings is very important as well. It is not easy at first, but very important for the long term. This is very important to unload everything we have on our back. Your supporting network is very important and you must do use of it (they are people near you, people you trust, family, close friends) and also to ask for professional help. Something people usually see as bad, but it is not. It is one of the most healthy things to do, it is very normal and everyone should do it. There is nothing to be ashamed of.
We can go through this! Together everything is better.