Stress triggered by the current strain of covid-19 pandemic has generated a debate about mental health of the people across the country and health specialists in Jammu & Kashmir too are equally concerned about the mental health of people in view of the rising fears of depression among the people due to growing economic stress triggered by two consecutive lockdowns one this year and the other one last year. Broadly speak mental health is all about depression and it has to do a lot with the human emotions and behaviour in public activities concerning trade, business, education of children and access to non covid health facilities. Health specialist don’t tend to only deal with the mental health complaints of the patients reporting to them for treatment but they also try to look into the root causes of the rising fears of the depression among the people. Health specialists can resolve health issues through diagnosis and treatment but not the growing economic distress which in the prevailing situation is also a major cause of growing fears depression among the people of Jammu & Kashmir like the people of other states and union territories of the country. Not the health specialists but the planners and administrators tasked the job of reviving the crippling economy in Jammu Kashmir have to look at the measures that are required for diverting the emotions of the people from health and economic issues to other routine matters of public life .
Journey to normalisation from covid stress is as challenging as is the fight against covid-19 pandemic. By all standards of understandabilities the plans of normalisation would reduce the stress on the minds of the people only if people themselves show willingness to become part of such processes.
Methods required for getting the people out of the current phase of tauma and pain can be best suggested by sociologists and psychologists and as such prescriptions for reducing the fears of depression have to come from sociologists and psychologists. Ultimately focus has to be on changing the patterns of life which prevent people from being joyful and full of life. So the solution to rising fears of depression does not lie in medical diagnoses but in the pattern of life which has entirely changed the pattern of public movements and the working of systems concerning basic human needs. Solution of grief of shocks, pains and isolation triggered by the current wave of pandemic won’t come from health specialists but it would surely come from psychologists, sociologists, economists, planners and administrators as they are the people devise plans and methods for resolving the issues of economic social distress. Journey to normalisation from covid stress is as challenging as is the fight against covid-19 pandemic. By all standards of understandabilities the plans of normalisation would reduce the stress on the minds of the people only if people themselves show willingness to become part of such processes.
