Emotional Well-Being and coping during COVID-19COVER STORY

COVER STORY EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

To state that 2020 has been a testing year would be an understatement. In these uncertain times, ensuring emotional well-being and coping with stress has assumed greater importance than ever before. There are a number of ways people are coping with stress and the myriad challenges thrown at us by this ongoing crisis. We spoke to LTTS-ites spread across geos to capture their perspectives and viewpoints on three key challenges that we are all facing: Coping with the pandemic, emotional well-being and working from home.

Yehuda Brody, Israel

Coping with the Pandemic The current situation isn't simple and demands a lot from each of us, but I'm finding that spending time with my family at home every evening and volunteering in the community gives me the energy to push forward.

Emotional well-being Most people have been stressed in the past few months and I have friends and colleagues who have been hit both physically and financially due to these times. I can see the change in their behavior. It's very important to keep an open eye and give a (remote) hand, financial aid and most importantly a kind word to people who need it.

As an active medic I treat all sorts of sick people. I believe many people lack the understanding of mental illness. The same way someone can have a heart attack, one can also have a chemical imbalance in their brain and suddenly they are not themselves, and this can be triggered by major or minor incidents, depending on the person. Mental illness can be very painful for the the patient's family, it’s important to respect and treat a mentally ill person with the same compassion and understanding we have for a physically ill person.

Coping with the Pandemic The only certainty about this phase of uncertainty is that it too shall pass! One way to look at this entire scenario is that everyone is sailing in the same boat. From my personal experience, a good friend lost her job during the pandemic but in a matter of a few weeks she was back on her feet and had more than one job offer. So, it is just a matter of holding on to your confidence and cultivating patience as a virtue. For someone facing anxiety or low confidence, I would also like to suggest talking to someone. Reach out to a friend, family member or someone you think can help you.

Anil Kumar Dadi, Engineer, Embedded System & Platform SW (Client Project), Malaysia

Coping with the Pandemic We need to remember that we aren’t the only one in this a situation but there are million others who are facing some issue or the other. We can try to channel our loneliness by concentrating on work or doing something that we like. As they say, “Idle mind is Devil's workshop,” it is therefore a good idea to stay engaged.

Karthik Kumar, Project Lead, Consumer Electronics (Japan)

Coping with the Pandemic My family in India had contracted the virus in September 2020. The enormity of this pandemic hit my family in ways we never imagined, and it took weeks to recover. With my entire family in self-quarantine at home, necessities became a challenge. My spouse's health deteriorated further as she developed Pneumonia, leading to hospitalization. I was onsite away from family, losing hope every second. It was at that moment that our neighbors stepped in to help, leaving their fears behind. They aided my family until my return. Recovery started at a rapid pace. Having faith in the goodness of the society and community that we belong to can give us a lot of hope and this hope combined with the assurance that "we are not alone" helped my family recover and come back to health.

Shalom Craimer, Technical Specialist, CTO team, Israel

Working from Home I think working from home is easy and fun, the only challenge is taking care of the kids. I can get more done when working at home, but to be fair, I've had a lot of practice while working at start-ups without offices. My wife (Miriam Malka) and I take turns. During lockdown or isolation, when we had to stay home, we did it in shifts: one person worked during the day, and the other during the night. Of course, sometimes work calls and deliveries required that we swap, but it caused timing conflicts only a handful of times. And even then, I can always just start a movie on the TV for the kids, and that usually keeps them busy for the duration of the time I need to focus.

Emotional well-being Mental illness is responsible for so much damage, and it's only in recent years that we're finally seeing it for what it is. From anxiety, depression to suicide, it's just so much. It's such a silent killer and destroyer of lives. Thinking back upon my life, it's miraculous I've not yet lost anyone to suicide. (For a couple of friends, thanks to timely intervention, their attempts at suicide were prevented.)

You speak to the people who have the biggest smiles, or the greatest bounce in their step, and it's always surprising when they turn out to be depressed or dealing with anxieties. What's even more frustrating is when smart people think they are smart enough to overcome all their problems on their own. As if they could overcome a virus by thinking it away. It's ridiculous. And then they burn out, or run away, or lose their mind. It's so rare, but heart-breaking when it happens.

It might be because there's still a taboo against seeking help for mental illness. Being sick with a cold isn't your fault, and neither is having your brain-chemicals shift to bring your depression. My favorite meme on this is: "If you can't make your own neurotransmitters, store-bought is fine." The key point here being, one must not be ashamed of seeking help when needed.

Ramakrishna Venkiteswaran, Delivery Manager, Edison

Working from Home After the initial charm of video calling wore off, it was replaced with juggling between work and young kids, and home distractions meant I ended up not being able to concentrate. A few changes that have helped me are: • Creating a separate space for my office helped increase focus, made it easier for my little daughters to know that if the office door is closed it is “Do Not Disturb” (reality is not perfect but situation has improved) • Investing in ergonomic office improvements viz – stand up desk, good chair helped to reduce the neck pain and back strain = better health • Setting a schedule for office work and the same manner having family time has helped ease the challenge a bit but it is still not perfect but a a work-in -progress.

Emotional well-being Caring for mental well-being was a challenge even earlier [before COVID-19] and during the pandemic it has caused a spike as stress has increased due to people losing jobs, having challenges with under-employment, among others. In addition, from my observation we are not that well educated in terms of identifying signs of mental illness in a person. Until very recently, stress, anxiety was not looked as a serious condition that needed review by a professional, but rather as something that will go away with time. As we move towards a progressive and aware society, we have to increase the access to education and awareness to mental health. This will also help tackle substance abuse issues as mental illness has a close relation with it.