Anxiety and agony adding to Covid woes in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Amit Sengupta, a marketing professional, made a list of people two weeks ago. His friends and uncle had just tested positive for Covid-19, and he thought he would regularly call the listed infected people to keep their morale high. “The list has become longer in the last few days with many other loved ones testing positive, including my own brother and his wife,” said Sengupta.“It is taking a toll on my mental health.”
The anxiety, depression, fear and grief of living in these burdensome times is affecting almost everyone — with varying degrees. As Dr Nand Kumar, professor of psychology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, pointed out, while the world might recover from the loss of lives caused by the pandemic, the mental trauma and grief caused by it may linger for long.

Sheetal Jain is one among many who is suffering such anxiety. The 22-year-old law student’s grandparents, both in the late 70s and with multiple co-morbidities, tested positive last week. Jain said that every relative her father reached out for help in admitting them to hospital were either infected or were coping with a Covid in the family. “Eight people straight!” she exclaimed. “We somehow managed to get a hospital bed for my grandparents, but now I am frightened to think about my parents or myself testing positive. There are no beds in hospitals and medicines and oxygen cylinders are in short supply.”
Tushar Verma, a software engineer, lost his job last year and hasn’t found another yet. If the stress of managing his household without a regular income was not enough, he is now wracked by angst over someone in the family contracting Covid. “I cannot sleep for more than three hours. I am taking anti-anxiety pills,” the 38-year-old confessed. “I have tried everything, from meditation to switching off from social media and TV news, but the fear hasn’t diminished. In fact, it is growing every day with information pouring in about hundreds dying of Covid.”
Dr Rajesh Sagar of the Central Mental Health Authority, said the prevailing circumstances make deaths more traumatic. “The fact that due to physical distancing norms, even relatives and friends cannot be there to offer solace robs the individual of the coping mechanism,” he explained.
Medical workers themselves are having a hard time. “As doctors, we have more suffering than ever during the pandemic,” said Dr Y K Misra, clinical services chief, Manipal Hospitals, Dwarka. There is a lot going on around us — from physical to mental health, seeing the trauma of people losing their loved ones and ourselves being anxiety-ridden about getting infected. And my wife (who is also a doctor) and I also have to take care of our aged father.”
Dr Gaurav Thukral, COO, Healthcare at Home, an organisation that runs a Covid helpline, says they are getting close to 10,000 calls every day now. “So many people are suffering from panic attacks. The incidence of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression has also risen,” Thukral reported.
Guilt over kin dying in isolation, away from family, is another cause for depression. Most Covid deaths happen in the ICU, states an article in Frontiers of Psychiatry. “In many cases, patients entered the emergency room, were taken to the ICU and never came back. Meanwhile, in order to keep them isolated, no one could see them, nor could any loved one be there at the time of the death,” the article says.