Big B on how Covid-19 affects mental health

MUMBAI: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is currently seeking Covid-19 treatment at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, has opened up on the alarming effects of the deadly virus on the mental health of the patients.

Taking to his blog, Big B penned a lengthy note, saying, "In the darkness of the night and the shiver of the cold room, I sing... eyes shut in attempted sleep... there is no one about or around... and the freedom to be able to do that will extend I know if in the Will of the Almighty there is release. The aftercare has ever been the deciding and most valuable time on recovery after the incident of medical professional doctoring in the patient's life."

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"...There is one note of matter that seems trivial but it is a factor... the mental conditions and the effects of the disease... clinically, medically all that is known to be effective, yet very little is known that remains hidden, unseen and not visible... matters of the mind often are not. The mental state sparks from the stark reality that the Covid-19 patient , put in hospitalised isolation , never gets to see another human... for weeks."

He shared how he's unable to interact much with the doctors, owing to the fear of contamination.

"There are the nurses and the doctors on visit and medicine care... but they ever appear in PPE units... you never get to know who they are, what are their features, expressions because they are forever covered in the units for protection... all white beings about... almost robotic in their presence... they deliver what is prescribed and leave... leave because longer stay has the fear of contamination,'' Bachchan said.

"The doctor under whose guidance the care and mapping and reports are governed by, never ever comes near you to give a hand of assurance... a personal detail of the treatment in the close proximity of an assurance... they are on the communication vehicle of Face Time... it's the best under the circumstances... but it is still impersonal, it cannot physically be possible otherwise... we are in remote treatment... does it have an effect psychologically mentally, psychologists say it does... patients after release are tempered... they are given to consultation with professional mind talkers... they are afraid to be in public for fear or apprehension of being treated differently... treated as one that has carried the disease � a pariah syndrome... driving them into deeper depression and in the loneliness that they have just come out of," Big B added.

The 77-year-old actor also highlighted the changes implemented in the medical sector of the world amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

"And even though the disease may have left the system, the cases of a low fever pursuing for 3-4 weeks is never ruled out. The long and short of it is this... the world has not found a foolproof methodology on the disease... every case is different... each day a new symptom is under observation and research..."

"Never before has the medical realm been so handicapped... not just one or two regions... the entire universe. Trial and error were never in such great demand than now," Big B concluded.

Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya are also currently hospitalised with coronavirus infection.

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