Panic to paranoia: One year on, mental health crisis still unfolding across India

New Delhi: One year ago, Indians locked down in their homes as COVID-19 tightened its grip over the country. When they emerged months later, tentative and timorous, the world many knew had changed, perhaps forever, leaving them grappling with a spectrum of mental health issues ranging from depression to paranoia.

For millions of Indians — students and their teachers, workers and high-end corporates, the young and the elderly — the process of adjustment hasn’t been easy. Coping with loneliness, anxiety and job losses, many have overcome the inherent bias towards acknowledging that they may have a mental health problem and have reached out for help.

The infection graph rose, fell and now that it is rising again, the panic has increased instead of receding, said a young woman in Ghaziabad who recalls the year since March 25, 2020 when the nationwide lockdown was imposed forcing a sudden isolation on people and a dramatic change in life as they had always lived it.

“I still don’t feel good whenever I go out. My sleep pattern is still very disturbed. It has been so long but my body is still coming to terms with staying indoors and I am not comfortable stepping out. My menstrual cycle is disturbed. This is impacting my overall mental peace,” she told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Kundan Sahi, an IT professional in Kolkata, reports similar problems. “I don’t know how long this will continue. There is always the fear of losing the job. Insecurity has taken away my sleep. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I have been taking help from a psychologist to come out of this,” he said.

It is an epidemic of sorts and the two young professionals are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, said mental health specialists across the country, viewing with alarm the overwhelming dimensions of a crisis that is still unfolding.

Cut off from friends, extended family and colleagues as the pandemic raged outside, many people came out into a changed world order with trepidation, they said. If some retreated into a shell, there were those who inflicted injuries on themselves, fought suicidal feelings and also those who ended their lives.

“Mental health cases have gone up since the lockdown began and the effect the pandemic is having on the mental health of the population at large is concerning to say the least,” said Vikram Thaploo, CEO of Apollo TeleHealth in Hyderabad.

The fear of catching an infection, social isolation and the loss of loved ones is often exacerbated by the distress caused due to unemployment and loss of income, he added, fearing the problem could escalate when “bottled up cases” come forward.

“Unless mental health is treated as a core element in our response to the pandemic, the long term social and economic costs will be severe,” he noted.

Of the 3,000 odd mental health consultations over the past year till February 2021, about 65% related to anxiety and depression and most people were in their 20s and 30s.

Sandeep Grover of the department of psychiatry at PGIMER in Chandigarh said stress levels are really high with people restricted indoors and both school work and office work being going online.

Cases of depression, anxiety, fears and phobia have increased as have issues such as forgetfulness and post traumatic stress disorders.

The problems are mirrored elsewhere in the country.