How can social and physical isolation impact our mental healths?

As mental health experts have warned from the start of the pandemic, a lack of communication with friends and family, losing social ties, physical distancing, isolation — all the new norms of surviving today – is coming at a huge psychological cost.

In India where conversations on mental health still remain quite tight-lipped, Amitabh Bachchan, who's been admitted in Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital since 11 July after he was tested positive for the novel coronavirus, opened up about his struggle with his mental health during quarantine.

In his personal blog, he opened up about how it feels to "not see another human for weeks" because of the isolation. He wrote, “There is one note of matter that seems trivial but it is a factor... the mental conditions and the effects of the disease... clinically, medically all that is known to be effective, yet very little is known that remains hidden unseen and not visible... matters of the mind often are not... The mental state sparks from the stark reality that the COVID-19 patient, put in hospitalised isolation, never gets to see another human... for weeks.”

While different people react differently to testing positive and the isolation period that follows, loneliness, fear and anxiety are something that a lot of people are struggling to cope with as they remain cooped up in either hospitals or in their residences.

It's imperative to understand then – how can someone help themselves mentally during isolation and what can isolation mean for them?

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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