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The Correlation of Mental Health & COVID-19

Hello everyone,

Today I'm going to talk about a very small topic but trust me we all should know this and take care of.
Going right into the topic, It is about the correlation has been seen between mental health and COVID-19.

I understand, this is a very challenging time for all of us. We all are very uncertain about various aspects of life. And also scared, so, scared that, we are literally frightened of the whole pandemic situation. I understand, we continuously coming across of bad news and situation is getting worse.
But I'm not here to talk about the misery or adding more.

I'm writing this particular piece to aware you all and help you out in some way during this situation.
My aim is to make you all understand the correlation of mental health and the COVID-19 situation.

From past few days, I have come across cases where people are actually dying of breathlessness. But those patients were not affected by COVID-19.

You must be thinking, How that can be possible?

Here comes the part where you need to focus on your mental health. 
Let me explain it for you,
It has been seen that the patients who actually died of breathlessness, and wasn't affected by COVID-19, were actually panicking so much that it led to breathlessness and eventual death.

Yes it happened.

Panic can really be fatal. While having a panic attack one goes through breathlessness. Which is perceived nowadays as the breathlessness people are having due to COVID-19 by many of us.

Understand, what is panic attack:

A panic attack is a sudden period of intense fear or apprehension which may last from minutes to hours. 
Unexpected panic attacks occur at any time and are not related with any identifiable situational stimulus, but panic attacks need not be unexpected. Some panic attacks do not fit easily into the distinction between unexpected and expected, and these attacks are referred to as "situationally predisposed panic attacks".
They may or might not occur when a patient is exposed to a specific trigger, or they can occur either immediately after exposure or after a considerable delay. The physical signs often include fast heart rate (rapid heart beat regular or irregular), palpitations (a sensation that the heart is racing, pounding but essentially not a sign of heart disease), dyspnea (shortness of breath), and sweating. (Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed., by Benjamin Sadock & Virginia Alcott Sadock)

Now, we will understand the next sentence highlighted in bold,
They may or might not occur when a patient is exposed to a specific trigger, or they can occur either immediately after exposure or after a considerable delay.

This means, the panic attacks can be triggered after exposer to a specific situation. We are exposed to a very critical situation from past one year and we are continuously fighting against it. So this situation is a triggering situation which is directly or indirectly affecting our mental health. Due to the exposer of this situation, news related to this situation or any traumatic event related to this is acting as a trigger. When these are triggering us we tend to be anxious and some of us can also experience panic attacks. The severe panic attack leads to breathlessness and also other symptoms explained in the above paragraph. 
Understand that, panic attacks can occur immediately or after a considerable amount of time after getting exposed to the triggering situation. So, same can happen with us in this prolonged COVID-19 situation.

What should we do then?

A small tip, if you're experiencing something like this, do seek help from a professional and also we can practice the stress management techniques (you can read it here, click here )



I hope, this post could assist you in some way...
Still, if you have any queries you can write to me here in the comments or email me (details given in pages section) 
I just want tell all of you, that, we are in this together.

Take care & Stay safe

~ Angira Gupta
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Location: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

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