Wellbeing in the times of COVID-19 lockdown

Avoid thinking negatively and tide over this difficult period

- Anuradha Sathiyaseelan, B.Sathiyaseelan

The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has caught us unawares. None of the living generations have experienced in their lifetime a general lockdown of the kind we are experiencing today. The state initiated lockdown measures to control the pandemic through social distancing appears harsh but probably is a measure of last resort given the rapid explosion in a number of cases, the high density of population in the country and our precarious healthcare infrastructure that may be completely inadequate to handle further escalation in the number of cases tested positive for COVID-19.

The situation looks scary when we find that even the advanced countries with their top-class healthcare and medical infrastructure are struggling to deal with the havoc being spread by the pandemic. On top of all this, the science of COVID-19 is changing every day. The uncertainty and sense of fear and panic are relentless. Add to that the compulsion to lock ourselves inside our houses, and imposed mandate to avoid meeting and interacting with others, our sense of helplessness that things are spiraling far beyond our control, something that we have rarely experienced in our lives, something that is new even to the senior citizens amongst us. The situation guarantees that stress and extreme anxiety will get triggered among the general population – if not all, most.