This pandemic has thrown light on many aspects of life including mental health. Many individuals got aware about the importance of mental health. An immense effect on the mental health during the lockdown was noticed irrespective of the gender, age, social status or profession. Many people lost their families, many lost their jobs and there is unmeasurable impact on every child's education too. These all and many more in whole have put individuals and their families at a vulnerable edge of mental health.
A few people explored themselves and came out of their comfort zones voluntarily but a few were forced out of their comforts. A few of them chose or were fortunate enough to stay in their comfort zones but had their cup of challenges anyway. Many people got addicted to technology and like they say, too much anything is always dangerous. To those who got addicted, to them the tide of psychological and emotional issues hit so hard that many among those started developing mental disorders.
Being alone in the room and spending too much time with a dependency on mobiles, laptops and other technology based gadgets made the individuals disconnect from the outside world and this affected their life post lockdown. In other terms, such individuals started experiencing social anxiety.
Social anxiety is of the many mental disorders that individuals developed during this phase. People suffering from social anxiety usually have the constant fear of being judged. They develop a feeling of inferiority. They become anxious when they are around people. The consequences of social anxiety have been bad on extroverts but worse in introverts. But like we know, no problem gets resolved when we hardwire the problem and not work out on the solution.
To say, there are many ways by which one can overcome social anxiety and the easiest one them is to not think about it. The more you think about it the more it gets rooted in your mind and thus occupies your mind. So being mindful about what we think and how we think can be the first step to feel at peace.
- JSR Pranathi, Psychology Student