Eminent psychiatrist Dr Vihang Vahia talks survival and revival as we look to turn the corner against the pandemic, in a changed world
Dr Vahia, consulting psychiatrist at Breach Candy and Lilavati Hospital, interacts with his audience during the webinar
As we near what is, hopefully, the final leg of the COVID-19 outbreak, top psychiatrist Dr Vihang N Vahia, spoke at a virtual meet held by a public trust, V-Citizens Action Network or V-Can. V-Can acts as a bridge between citizens and local government representatives. The trust has also launched health talks recently and Dr Vahia, consulting psychiatrist at Breach Candy and Lilavati Hospital, interacted with his virtual audience through a webinar called, Mind - The Main Switch.
How everything changed
Dr Vahia began by acknowledging that the world is going through a crisis, like never before. “The closest we have come to this is the Spanish Flu 120 years ago.” Tracing the arc of the outbreak, the mental health expert said, “It all began in March 2020, when fear of getting infected by a virus that was potentially fatal really played on people’s minds. Before that, there was a grey area between December 2019 and March 2020 and then, we were plunged into complete darkness. Nobody could tell us what was going to happen.”
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The doc continued, “Our pattern of life changed. From fear we went into COVID fatigue zone, and even as we were battling these different emotions, work and study from home upended lives too. There was one family sharing one computer at times and we soon spiralled into frustration. So, we went from fear, to fatigue, to frustration. The frustration was also the blurring of our comfort zones. Routine brings certain comfort zones. These were gone with set patterns in disarray.”
For many, the upside was more time with family. While Dr Vahia acknowledged this, he added, “The monotony of living with a restricted number of people, also told on us. We saw domestic violence, with targets at times trapped with their abuser. Loss of loved ones which included family, and friends, increased our apprehension of what would happen to us should we get infected. Most importantly, people could not share grief. They had to bottle their sorrow. We also had survivors’ guilt if one spouse passed away due to COVID-19, and the other felt guilt at surviving the virus.”
The silver lining
Having outlined the challenges, Dr Vahia said we are at the cusp of a turnaround, “We are seeing some kind of silver lining to the dark clouds but everything has changed, communication has changed, people have lost the skill of talking to each other… the government said maintain social distancing, but psychiatrists said we must maintain virtual social proximity.”
For Dr Vahia, one of the solutions for our stressors, not just induced by the pandemic but beyond is to live in the present. The past produces anger and a simmering sense of injustice for the wrongs we think are done to us, the future, especially today is riddled with anxiety. “Live in the present, count your blessings of the moment. Think about how you can make the best of what you have, than what you do not have. I use the metaphor of driving a car, when the driver sits and releases the handbrake, only then can he move forward. It is like shedding the baggage we are carrying. We do have a rear-view mirror, so we have to be aware of what is behind us but concentrate on the front just 5 to 10 feet in front, not too far ahead, that is the way to negotiate the road smoothly," he said.
Stressing the importance of being discerning, Dr Vahia said that you decide who you want to trust. That brought one to the big question, do we take the shot or not, he was asked in the interactive session following his address. This currently is the biggest stressor for many now. “I got my vaccine shot on January 16, I am a believer in science, the scientific know how behind the vaccines is sound,” he finished.
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