“You okay?” my boss asked me earlier this month, “You seem a bit frustrated.”
Staring blankly at the screen, I wasn’t quite sure how to respond or name it. For days now, something inside me was off. The sensations were subtle, but they were there, quietly and persistently brimming.
I was two weeks into the quarantine with most of my days isolated and unflinching, and screens overflooded with news, rants and paranoia. The coronavirus pandemic had infiltrated every facet of my waking life – which I now mostly spend in my pajamas.
Stripped from the life and people I was so accustomed to, I was growing restless. My thoughts would race, but my focus would slip. Just when it felt like I could put my mind into doing anything, that moment would slip by just as fast. Weekends and weekdays now feel the same, and I would often catch myself staring off into space, no particular thought in mind. I was confused, scattered, unmotivated, stressed, worried, and guilt-ridden.
I was in a slump, and what was worse was feeling helpless towards it all.
“It’s the plague atmosphere,” he concluded.
Unfortunately, this anxiety I am still going through is, in fact, universal.
A hidden pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has flipped the world upside down within a matter of weeks. Social distancing and restrictive measures continue to prevail, leaving us all disoriented and frazzled. Memes, jokes, and hashtags only alleviated symptoms temporarily. Everyone was just desperately hoping and asking – when will this all end?
But this alternation between lighthearted jokes and hard-hitting facts seem to miss the onset of a secondary disease just as dire and extensive: short and long-term mental health problems arising from the outbreak.
Handshakes, hugs, and kisses have now become social taboos. People now have to think and check themselves twice or even three times before leaving and entering their homes. Many are struggling to make ends meet, relying on government handouts and subsidies.
This pandemic has upended life as we know it and “disrupted modern society on a scale that most living people have never witnessed,” commented Ed Yong, a science journalist at The Atlantic.
Humans are not made for social isolation.
Nearly half of the people in the United States are currently experiencing symptoms of psychological trauma due to the outbreak, according to a survey published by the Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this April.
Another observation made by an epidemiologist back up these statistics: social isolation, increasing ambiguity about the future and anxiety about the disease could lead to a wide range of mental health issues as people are forced to live under restrictive measures that will likely continue for some time.
People have been thrown into a “dual crisis of physical and mental health” issues, writes Andrew Solomon, professor of medical clinical psychology at Columbia University, and those “facing psychiatric challenges deserve both acknowledgment and treatment.” For those of us already suffering from a series of mental health ailments, this pandemic will likely exacerbate it to alarming degrees.
But it’s not just in these trying months that people will experience such triggers. This pandemic has already left a sizable scar in the modern psyche and its aftermath will be far-reaching and may take months and even years to recover.
Thailand’s problem with mental health
“We have two triggers for mental illness in the current crisis,” Solomon observes, “sadness when we fear for our lives and stress when our emotional attachments decay as a result of social isolation.” The losses we feel and will continue to suffer from this outbreak deserve real recognition and substantive response strategies from society and governments alike.
Unfortunately, Thailand falls disappointingly short in recognizing mental health issues.
Over 7 million Thais suffer from mental health issues, according to findings released by Thailand’s Department of Mental Health (DMH). The study also revealed that over 1.5 million Thais suffer from depression – the third leading cause of disability-adjusted life year (DALY) lost in Thai females and among the top twelve causes of disease in Thai males.
A 2016 research paper by Dr. Somrak Chuwanichawong of Srithanya Hospital reported Thailand’s severe lack of mental health workers, with one licensed psychiatrist for every 250,00 people. Statistics released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017 revealed that the Thai government only spends 0.30 per cent of its total health expenditure on mental health issues.
Mental illness due to the isolation and loss from the pandemic is hardly mentioned or emphasized to the public. Online, the DMH has launched a new page on its website to assist Thais in coping with the coronavirus outbreak. But it alarmingly lacks any real, substantial resources or thoughtful guidelines.
One reason why mental health isn’t treated as a real issue in Thailand is the stigma surrounding it, which remains a major barrier for Thais seeking help from family, friends and professionals. In most Asian cultures, mental illness is shrouded in silence and shame and seen as a personal weakness and failure – as if the person is at fault for their inability to function in and adjust to a profoundly sick society.
Another problem lies in how society at large still deems mental health treatments as a luxury, making effective mental health care extremely expensive.
What we can do, for now
Fortunately, there are currently countless web pages, articles, and support groups available online dedicated to helping you through this pandemic. Earlier in the outbreak, I saved this simple and practical guideline illustrated by the WHO to share with my friends and family coping with the isolation and disruption.
Being aware and mindful of yourself and listening to your emotions will help you distinguish what it is that you are feeling and what exactly needs to be done to help alleviate it. It is unpleasant, but it is okay and normal to feel stressed during this time.
