by Priya Prakash

Bihar, Nov 2020.

The Global Burden of Disease study estimated that nearly 200 million people in India have experienced a mental disorder, nearly half of whom suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders during Covid-19.  One of the surveys reported that Covid-19 has strongly affected the mental health of college students.

Here is the story of a graduation student, battling with inner and outer problems, struggling with her aspirations in a pandemic. As a media student, she dreamt to have lots of field experiences in her last year of graduation, she dreamt of a progressive and productive life ahead.

But what she actually got at the starting of the pandemic was an inactive lifestyle, stress, anxiety, trauma, fear of failure, and negativity.

The inactive lifestyle followed by anxiety and stress is very common in the life of a college student. The situation was some for her also, lying in her bed for the whole day, scrolling her social media, and getting anxious and jealous with the fake lifestyles.

The fear of a failed career made her so insecure that she started to search for other career options.

Her inner strength never allowed her to surrender to these challenges which were very new to her and with her determination and strong willpower, she decided to answer every challenge.

As 2020 rolled in, the Internet was the only door to get in or get out of something in life. She explored the Internet and this was the time when a whole new perspective came in front of her. She was not the only person on earth to experience these things but according to The government’s National Mental Health Survey’s report, about 10 percent of adults meet diagnostic criteria for a mental health condition (ranging from mood and anxiety disorders to severe mental illness). The thing that struck her mind that as a media student she should take steps no matter small or big and do something for the people who experience the same things but don’t share it or don’t know what they are going through.

She started following the  Mental Health Foundation and other NGOs that work for the awareness of mental health illness.

In the process to aware of others, she started making videos on YouTube, one of her videos “Ways to keep yourself calm and relaxed during the lockdown”did well, and she got many positive feedbacks from her unknown viewers as well as family and friends.

Then following her passion for writing, she started writing blogs on the same issue. When people were busy portraying a fake happy lifestyle, she started sharing ways to overcome the insecurities caused by the pandemic. She shared ways to keep people’s minds happy and healthy.

Her aim was to give a platform to other survivors where they can share or talk about their story of survival as everyone has a different struggle story.

This girl doing continuous constructive efforts to fight the negative consequences of Covid-19 in her life is none other than me. I’m Priya Prakash, this is my empowerment story, how I made the best of the situation I was in.

About the Author:

Priya Prakash s a student of  Journalism & Mass Communication, BA, Third Year, Vishwakarma University Centre of Communication for Development, Pune. Her article was short-listed as an entry in the Empowerment Story Competition organized in December 2020 by the University.