Day 51 – Q 1. Why is emotional intelligence crucial  to address mental health issues during the ongoing pandemic? Illustrate with the help of suitable examples. 

Demand of the question:

It expects students to write the importance of emotional intelligence to address mental health issues  especially focussing on the impact of ongoing pandemic on mental health with relevant examples.

Introduction:

The covid-19 pandemic is leaving an unprecedented impact on the mental health of people. With the increasing number of cases of suicides, domestic violence on women the mental health issue came to forefront. Emotional Intelligence due to its multitude of positive way of action can play a pivotal role to address mental health issues during the ongoing pandemic.

Body:

Emotional intelligence refers to ‘the ability to identify one’s own emotions and those of others, harness and apply them to tasks, and to regulate and manage them’. Due to its direct co-relation with the mental health of the people, emotional Intelligence is crucial to address mental health issues during the ongoing pandemic in following ways:

Mental Health issues during the ongoing pandemic:

• Fear of exposure to disease: Children, Old age people and those who are fighting with long term illness, this section of population is at more risk of exposure.
• Fear and worry about one’s own health and the health of their loved ones, created an atmosphere of fear in the family which leads to have a negative impact on the productivity of persons in the family. 

• Anxiety and threat to life: Health care professionals and frontline workers are the first line of defence and hence, fear to get infected, fear of loss of life  overpowers their thoughts if their level of emotional intelligence is not that high.

• Ethical question of whether to save my own life or serve others: Essential workers such as employees in food sector, vegetable vendors, medical shop owners etc. might get depressed due to the fact that when the whole world is sitting inside their home and making sure that they and their loved ones are safe during pandemic, why I should be the only one who should take risk and work.

• Suicides of students and jobless people: In Jalandhar district of Punjab, 80 suicides are reported till date during pandemic-induced lockdown.
• Feeling of helplessness and vulnerable: The pandemic has exposed the harsh realities of rich-poor gap and extent of government facilities across the population. In this pandemic situation where people have no source of income due to lockdown their mental state deteriorated while addressing the question of from where to get money to eat.

• Also In a tragic incident, 16-year-old class 10 student allegedly committed suicide after she failed to attend online classes in the absence of a computer or a Smartphone.
• Deterioration of Mental health of family: The UN has described the worldwide increase in domestic abuse as a “shadow pandemic” alongside Covid-19. The cases of domestic violence have increased by 20% during the lockdown, as many people are trapped at home with their abuser.
• The rise in cases of domestic violence is due to the increased presence of the husbands and children in home. As it results in more work demand on women, women if fails to carry out a responsibility in home, faced physical and mental abuse inside the home. Hence, It resulted in the deterioration of mental health of whole family.
• COVID-19 positive patients mental health: The scale of impact on the mental health of the people who are getting treatment for COVID-19 is horrible. As many of them have faced social ostracization, feeling of loneliness overpowered them, and felt helpless in this situation.
• Lack of motivation: As a considerable section of the population lost jobs, and sat idle at home they lost their motivation to do better in life. 

The COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown has posed a great challenge in terms of different mental health issues. However, emotionally intelligent society can respond in proper way to these mental health issues of pandemic in following ways :

• Emotional intelligence in a way helps to tackle  fear of exposure to disease by inducing right thinking, and supplementing the right course of action such as not leaving the home for unnecessary things or inculcating right habit of washing the hands properly to tackle the pandemics challenge.
• Social awareness: Emotional intelligence help the frontline workers and healthcare providers to look at this pandemic as an opportunity for them to help every person who might or might not get infection of covid-19.
• It will also help to have a positive impact on the health of patients who are treated by these health care workers.
• Motivation: Having a strong emotional intelligence to face the situation and get a desired output if imbibed, it will help to have a strong society with good character.
• Emotional intelligence due to its ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately, can help to reduce the domestic violence.
• The mental health of a person also plays a prominent role in recovery of an ill body. Hence, if a patient whose emotional intelligence is strong, he/she will not fall  to the negative thoughts, and in turn they will respond the treatment well and will recover from the infection earliest.
• Self awareness: Emotional intelligence gives a greater awareness of self. So an essential service provider if understands that by doing his/her job, duty he/she is helping the people to tackle this pandemic then it will surely instil sense of doing duty for betterment of others. 

Conclusion:

Emotional intelligence due to its characteristic to manage emotions so as to attain specific goals has potential to be more useful to reduce the impact of pandemic. Having a strong emotional intelligence in society will help to respond to the upcoming pandemic threats in future in right manner and tackle them successfully.