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Mental health, crucial to fight Covid

19th July 2020 : Standing in the hospital lobby,

with my report in my hand stating :’SARS. COV. RNA –Not detected“.

I was about to taste freedom from Covid after weeks of quarantine.

It was such a relief. That piece of paper was my ticket to freedom to move

around at my will, meet and great my family and friends.

It was my visa to be part of the social order.

That very moment , I heard a hospital security man a call ” All of you ,

please move to the far end of the room.”‘ Behind him I could see a,

nurse in PPE kit and a patient in hospital gown, holding his medical file,

walking out of the X -ray room. As I watched him pass by,

I realized I had become one of the Onlookers , who were shamelessly

staring at him, as if he is an object to be alarmed of.

He looked at us, his eyes spoke volumes of pain both emotional and physical.

I felt like giving myself a kick, instead of staring at him,

I could have given him a smile and said “Get well soon”.

For a Covid patient admitted in the hospital, it is not only a Physical Lockdown,

but a huge emotional Lockdown. The patient faces Isolation from family members,

he or she misses being physically held and comforted. At times the emotional and

mental distress supersedes the distress of physical health and that is one of the factors

of Mortality in Covid 19. Fear on our faces of family members and overly publishing

negativity on the social media, adds to the emotional strain on the patient.

When mass media can publish the Statistics of Covid 19 cases as well as mortality

in a state, why can’t they publish the number of people

who have recovered from Covid 19 and gone home?

On our personal front ,we need to be safe and maintain social distancing,

during this Pandemic. But somewhere in our anxiety of arranging the medicines

and hospital bills, we tend to overlook the most important factor,

Emotional resilience to Covid 19 is the key to bring back home our loved ones.

Archana Jalan

By Admin

Archana Jalan, a Dietitian by education. Implementation of education takes care of my physical health. I practice writing my thoughts and my emotions. It helps me analyse better and enhance my skills such as reasoning, problem solving and developing solutions. My medium of expressions is through script writing for speeches, blogs and now Content writing.