Most of us, either directly or indirectly, will experience mental illness at some point in our lives. Stressors that are biological, social, psychological, inherited, and environment combine to cause mental disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a condition of well-being marked by self-awareness, the ability to manage everyday stresses, the capacity for productive and fruitful work, and the capacity to contribute to one’s community. Although Covid helped to make mental health a more open topic, the current situation had its beginnings even before the pandemic. The prevalence of mental health problems has considerably increased over the last few decades, but our infrastructure has remained chronically inadequate. There hasn’t been much evidence, after 1990 that the harm that mental illnesses cause to people’s health has diminished. An assessment of the burden of mental health diseases for the nations of India found that as many as 197.3 million people required treatment for mental health illnesses in 2017. Of these, 44.9 million suffered from anxiety disorders, and 45.7 million from depressive illnesses. According to a 2017 WHO estimate, there were approximately 9,000 psychiatrists working in India, or 0.75 per lakh of residents. According to this assumption, there should be three psychiatrists for every lakh inhabitants. Comparatively to the global average of 6.6, India has 1.93 mental health care practitioners per 10,000 population. At any given time, 15% of working-age adults are thought to be suffering from a mental illness. The projected $1 trillion annual cost of depression and anxiety to the global economy is primarily attributable to lost productivity. People’s levels of anxiety and despair increased by 25%. People were shocked by the escalating mortality rate when Covid assailed them; it was presented as a fatal illness with no effective cure. Concerns about one’s own and other family members’ health have increasingly been cited as a major contributor to anxiety. In addition, this was the first time we had encountered a virus with such a high fatality rate, and lockdown had never been an issue previously. Because of increased reliance on social media and the digital world, as well as exposure to a lot of unreliable information, there has been a marked rise in anxiety and depressive disorders. Some persons experience an increase in rage and irritation. Some individuals developed obsessive disorder as a result of going overboard with maintaining hygiene due to their extensive hand washing and hand sanitizer use while they were so terrified of contracting the virus.
Although the Mental Health Act of 2017 gave patients the legal right to live in dignity free from harassment, compulsion, and discrimination, the effort in this area is too scattered and lacks direction. Campaigns to raise awareness of the problem of mental health, the use of celebrities and social media influencers, enlisting the aid of NGOs, and a higher level of community and local government involvement are some of the actions that could lead to better results.