Blogpage of Sumana Psychiatry Center

  Mrs. Desai (name changed), a 60-year-old lady was recently diagnosed with covid 19. Even after the complete recovery, she is going through sleepless nights, fear that she would still be harboring infection, and that she might infect her kin. She is always stressed and nervous all the day. Often skips meals and stays alone…. sounds familiar, isn’t it? Well, the ongoing pandemic has affected the mental health of the people in more than one way, and here we offer some insights into this matter. What is this pandemic is all about?     Okay! We are not going to bombard you with the same, scary, technical jargon you have been hearing for an year now. In short, Covid 19 is infectious disease which is causes by coronavirus. This affects your respiratory tracts such as nose, throat, sinuses windpipe and lungs. It is known to cause illness varying from the common cold and fever to more severe illnesses such Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Due its rapid global spread...

  In our previous blog , we discussed how the covid 19 pandemic has affected the mental health of people and what are the common concerns/ questions leading to mental stress, and gave some general suggestions to manage the same. In this blog, we intend to explain some specific psychological techniques to maintain a positive attitude in these difficult times. Specifically, we are going to address two important issues: managing the negative thoughts and adopting positive coping skills. It is quite natural for us to get negative thoughts in day-to-day life. More so when we are going through adversaries, and needless to say, that we all are going through one of the most difficult times ever. Most of the negative thoughts are irrational and lead to negative emotions (like fear, anxiety, sadness) and negative behavior.   This relationship is diagrammatically represented below. Hence, if you can replace your negative thoughts with positive ones, you can reduce your negative emoti...

  "Stress is not necessarily something bad it all depends on how you take it". -----~ Hans Selye Every individual in society faces day-to-day challenges, which in most cases is normal but sometimes these challenges can make the person feel stressed up. So, here is a brief outlook of stress and its management. What is Stress?  Stress is how an individual reacts or responds to a demanding situation. It is not true that stress is always bad or negative unless it becomes unhealthy and disturbs one’s individual life. Some amount of stress is beneficial as it helps to motivate and work efficiently but on the other hand excessive amount of stress can affect one's physical and mental health which may disturb the daily functioning of a person. There are numerous reasons why a person undergoes stress. Some examples of the stressors that can be experienced in someone’s life such major life changes, injury or illness, death of loved ones, financial stress, work pressure, rela...

  As a psychiatrist, I have been seeing more and more cases of covid related mental health issues of late. I could observe various themes in these clients. There were various reasons why someone got psychologically affected during this pandemic. The insight grew deeper and clearer when I got infected, along with my family a few weeks ago. Here in this blog, I have tried to identify and address some common concerns or questions (based on my experiences as a psychiatrist and also as an individual) that haunt us during these testing times. For the sake of clarity, I have discussed these themes under sections, each corresponding to a time zone. When someone is not infected During this period the major concern is “what if I get infected?”, “How safe am I and my family” “Is it safe to step outside”. What we should understand that stepping outside to get the essential stuff is inevitable, and the risk of infection can be reduced to a bare minimum if we follow safety protocols strictly...