Looking back on this one year of the pandemic has made me realize a lot of things. When things were rough for everyone in the world, one year seemed like a decade in which a lot of things happened. The world turned haphazard with lots of negativity in the air. It was not only the illness and deaths, but our chaotic lifestyle led to poor choices, neglected mental health, unemployment, and more. It’s not always the people to blame; I mean the situation took a 180-degree turn so suddenly that no one was prepared for it.
The increase in death rates led to a drastic increase in mental health issues, not only for the near family members but even for the non-acquainted. This period of pandemic seemed like a long, never-ending tragic play; where people were the characters with no audience. Firstly it was the fear of the unknown, which then transformed into the fear of reality and adaptation to the new normal. Humans are social creatures, and being in an isolated environment to prevent the worst forced many people into seeing their lives under scrutiny. No matter where we are in our lives, on a closer look, there are always some flaws that get hidden with our fast-paced lifestyles. But this closer look into our lives became a checkpoint with a loop. COVID survivors are still struggling with some side effects of the disease, whereas the others are fighting against the fear of unknown factors in their lives.
This pandemic gave our world economy a huge hit, and being in a monetary world meant unemployment. Now imagine a product with a user manual that you spent years on understanding, suddenly it was broken by natural causes. Your efforts and time spent suddenly went down the drain and you are facing an unknown void where you do not have any clue as to what is to come. That became our reality and is continuing.
We are adapting and getting better at facing the situation that left us clueless. The awareness for mental health has been in the open recently and despite the increase, it is being taken care.