Looking into Pandora's Box between "Everything" and "But" -Depression, Pain of Losses the Next Pandemic of Humanity?

Abstract

This Article seeks to give an overview of how the pandemic has affected society throughout this period, which can be a source of many mental health problems.

As in the Spanish influenza pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of measures of social separation, isolation and limitation of contact with other people were, and are still, a major stress factor.  The stress associated with this period disrupted the functioning of people both individually and socially, being the main factor of the phenomenon called compensation.

Under the current circumstances, people have a predisposition for emotional disorders such as: Anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia, anger, Emotional depletion and including post-traumatic symptoms of disorder, according to recent studies by the Lancet analyzing the psychological effects of quarantine.

The COVID-19 crisis has a wide range of effects on our mental and emotional health: From negative emotions with greater intensity and duration, such as anxiety and depression, to unfinished emotional mourning, linked both to the loss of loved ones and even to emotional and relational disconnection. 

Also, all that has happened in recent times makes us live in “collective pain” , we have lost our right to travel without restrictions or the freedom to participate in sad events or family and community joy, we have lost family or friends.

In many cases of these losses, the strands of the dollar are also being cut, which is why people need additional support. We need to find solutions to this, because we have to deal with the natural grief caused by human disappearance, as we know it, but also an isolation characteristic of the suffering process that now overlaps the physical isolation imposed by the epidemic.

Another important aspect is to prevent instability in the psycho-social element of the human Community. It is clear that there is a need to impose safety measures both jointly and individually.  

Psychological aspects should be addressed early, so that measures can be taken to reduce the psychological costs of pandemic, perceived isolation and to address uncertainties that can give rise to anxiety and depression. Addressing psychological issues has effects not only in the short term, motivating adherence to pandemic measures, but also in the long term, through lower incidence of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, etc.

The fastest change expected after this crisis will be the individual one, each crisis is a chance for every person to look further.