Lockdown Diary Of A Teenager: We are together in the mental-health battle
Each day in the life of a teenager or adult comes with its unique agenda, characterised either to bring joy or struggle and sometimes both.
I believe that there are no two days in life that ever go the same for anyone. Whether a day is as uneventful as that of an infant whose days revolve around diaper change, drinking milk and sleeping, or a person engaged in a profession that requires repeating the same old function at work day after day, there is some defining feature that distinguishes today from yesterday and tomorrow. If one had to take an example to prove the above phenomenon, the answer would be found in the simplest of details that affect us but most often are forgotten to their lack of ‘significance’. For instance, consider the following questions and see if you have ever had a change of mood/behaviour because of them: How did the food in your tiffin taste today? Did everyone stare at you because the fly of your pants was unzipped? Did the teacher mock you because you gave a stupid answer in class? Did you flunk the test? Did your frenemy get the promotion at work instead of you? How did it feel receiving an award?
The answers to these questions are what break the monotony of every day. While I have said that no day is same, there is, however, one thing that remains constant throughout your life or at least till the day that you wake up in the morning with no goal to achieve in your mind. I am talking of the uninvited guests or gatecrashers, commonly known by the names of stress, anxiety and depression.
If we feel like we experience an overwhelming amount of it on any ordinary day, the lockdown period brought about by the coronavirus certainly puts that assumption to fail. The stress, uncertainty and apprehension felt by people during the ‘non-quarantine’ days of their life have undoubtedly seen a quantum jump during the period of lockdown. On the one hand, we see children forced to deal with their inability to sustain themselves in a single area, whereas, on the other, we find elders unable to cope with the full stop in their productive lives.
Each one of us has a moment in the day when we may snap, get edgy, unreasonable or feel lost. Seeing my own family, I would expect other families too to have the same withdrawal symptoms of having our lives come to a halt. I notice that we all have gotten tired of seeing each other’s faces 24/7 for days on end, of eating the same meals at home on weekly basis, finding nothing to watch or read and essentially feel incapable and useless. The lack of purpose — pruposes, which is cardinal to life — has resulted in our lifestyles becoming similar to that of animals, for we only live to eat.
The lockdown period has brought about dramatic changes to our physical and psychological well-being. Lack of purpose leads to a fall in self-esteem due to the feeling that we are worthless. This absence of confidence in oneself breeds many problems such as those of lethargy, lack of motivation and perpetual cynical remarks. While these things prove to be obstacles for a lone individual, they also create a domino effect by taking all others around the individual into its fold. The saying that ‘one can only make others happy if they are happy’ holds true for its reverse as well.
It is common to find that many times, we find ourselves isolated and alone in this battle against these mental forces. Comments like "it’s just a cry for attention" or "stop being a spoilsport" or "don’t act out for nothing" further aggravate our loneliness and worsen the situation. It is a gross thing that people believe that ‘loneliness’ or ‘uncertainty’ isn’t ‘enough reason’ for people to feel what they feel. The logic that says that since everyone is in the same boat, your feelings aren’t justified - cannot be a humane explanation for the stress, sadness and fear that people presently feel.
I am constantly trying to convince myself that there is still hope for change; that the people beating healthcare workers will realise that they’re killing their chance of survival, that people not practising social distancing are creating conditions to be separated from the very life that they breaking rules for. If this period does not teach us to change our old ways, I don’t know if anything ever can. I encourage and appeal to the people to go out of their way to show compassion to those who are stifled and don’t feel themselves. This is the time where we show that we’re capable of taking care of each other, of making others feel that everything will be alright and honouring the statement — ‘we are in this together’.
Also read: Why focus on mental health and staying together is critical in these trying times