As the COVID-19 pandemic relentlessly sweeps across the globe, many countries are in some form of lockdown with people being asked to stay at home and limit all forms of social interaction. With the national lockdown in India, we may have just started on a trend that many now say could be the ‘new normal’ for social interaction. This episode explores the question of mental health at a time like this, the toll that anxiety about the pandemic takes on people, the sense of isolation felt by many and what all of us can do to protect our general mental well being.

Interview by Zubeda Hamid, Reporter, The Hindu

Guest: Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, Psychiatrist, Founder of Sneha (a helpline for the suicidally inclined), and WHO Consultant.

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