Fabiha Bushra :
What is the want of a human? Or the question can be like what are the wants of a human? It is said that wants are unlimited. We want to be healthy, attractive, rich, famous, powerful and so on. Moreover we want a peaceful and healthy world so that we can live our life peacefully and healthfully with our fulfilled wants. But sometimes conflicts or epidemics destroy the peace of world. Conflicts can be prevented or controlled by power but epidemics can’t be prevented or controlled so easily. Nowadays Corona virus which is also known as Covid-19 has spread its gruesomeness all over the world. It is also hampering our dream of a peaceful and healthy world . Whenever the wants can’t be fulfilled, got hampered for any reason we got frustrated and the frustration makes leads us to the dark world of depression depressed. Depression, a word consists of 10 letters. But do we know that every letter of this word has a negative meaning also? If the answer is no, let’s have a glance on them.
D – Disgusted, E – Enraged, P – Pessimistic, R – Rude, E – Eroding, S – Sad, S – Stressful, I – Infernal, O -Oppressive and N – Noxious.
It’s a matter of wonder that how one word contains that much negative vibes in it. Depression is such a feeling that can’t be described in words. It slowly takes place in human’s life and makes him forgot that how it all began. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) ,”Depression is a common mental disorder. It’s different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from diseases. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family.” It’s terrible. Along mental problem, it also tends to major heart diseases, brain damage to suicidal tendency . American Psychiatric Association (APA) has given the definition of depression, ‘Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.’ It is not a simple matter that can be ignored. William C. Shiel Jr. the chief editor of MedicineNet has written on one of his expedient article that Depression is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be wished away. People with depression cannot merely pull themselves together and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months or years.
Now it has been some of discussion on the definition of depression. Whereas depression is not a simple disease so it can be occurred for many reasons like gloomy weather, uncertainty, abuse, losing job, breaking relations, getting divorced, retiring, death or a loss, conflict, epidemics and so on. So, as it is said before that the outbreaks of epidemics make human life uncertain, effect on the economic sector, death or a loss occurs. Moreover, an unstable situation remains all over the world. Covid-19 is a pandemic of panic which has become a lethal epidemic. It was first identified in December 2019. in Wuhan, China. Now it has been spread out all over the world. @@According to Wikipedia ‘The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January and a pandemic on 11 March. As of 12 June 2020, more than 7.5 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in more than 188 countries and territories, active cases are 3.54 million, resulting in 412,000 deaths; more than 3.53 million people have recovered.’ The virus is so contagious that let alone sneezing or coughing it can spread by touching and close contacts also. Countries declared lockdown that the virus spread slowly and in the meanwhile until the antidote of this virus is invented. Due to lockdown schools, colleges, universities, workplaces etc are closed and people are constrained to stay home. Ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 people are getting panicked so much. Cause, this is the era of technology. People get all the updates of the number of infected people, virus spreading situation, number of deaths through newspapers, TV news, social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc. These information make people depressed. Cause human nature is something like when they hear the miseries of others, they feel sad for them, get depressed for them. Thus information make people depressed. Then because of the lockdown all schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions have been closed. Students cannot finish their syllabus, courses, semesters, exams. For the remaining situation students can’t be sure about their future and these uncertain thoughts make them mentally depressed. The job seekers or unemployed people get depressed because for the pandemic of panic. They can’t attend any job exam or interview. The working people can’t go to their workplaces, though doctors and polices are on their duty during this time and many countries have withdrawn lockdown to make the wheel of economy ongoing. But they always remain in the fear of that from where the virus will enter in their body and spread among their family members or dear ones. But they can’t help doing their duty. Depression comes automatically in this situation. Again, now people are getting chance to stay with their family but due to digitalization most of the time many people are engaged with social media and prefer to stay alone. They see some positive news, some negative news, some rumors alone but don’t share with anyone. But people always pay heed at the negative news and the rumors. So, that makes them depressed easily. The people who have come from abroad but not infected or who were infected with the virus, their family members have to face a lot of ignorance and avoidance from the society people. They forget that they have to keep distance from body not mind. This is so much depressing. Many a thinks perhaps the pandemic will be annihilated as abruptly as it has spread like wildfire. But that’s not going to happen. There is no chance to underestimate the situation. So, how will we deal with this pandemic and the depression generates from it? We should be very careful of consuming information from the social media and avoiding the negative news and rumors. Building a strong mentality and developing the mental health to fight against the panic of pandemic is really important. Behaving good and communicating with others keep people free from boredom, loneliness, anxiety. Overall keeping physical distance, staying home, maintaining a healthy routine and staying stress free can beat the Covid-19 as well as depression.
(Fabiha Bushra is a student, Department Of Tourism & Hospitality Management University Of Dhaka. Email :- [email protected])
