By Kua Ee Heok
We are in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The surge in number of infection cases in the past few days is alarming, even frightening.
When the pandemic started in early 2020, it engendered a pandemic of fear, but we thought it would abate early this year. Unfortunately, it has not.
Now we observe many hospital staff and even the public in a state of pandemic fatigue. There is a sense of frustration, helplessness, sleeplessness and sometimes even irritability. This is not an illness per se, but it is also how the mind can react when there is seemingly no end in sight – a state of despair.
On 30th April 1665, Mr Samuel Pepys, a British naval administrator wrote in his diary about the bubonic plague pandemic in London. ,“Great fears of the sickenesse here in the city,” he penned, and gave a glimpse of life during the crisis – the deserted streets of London and the number of his friends, including a doctor, who had died. Fear and fatigue gripped Londoners.
Fortunately, not everyone in Singapore is overwhelmed by pandemic fatigue and there are still many working and fronting the healthcare services diligently and courageously. A group of seniors from the Nature and Mindful Awareness Study (NaMAS) conducted by the Mind Science Centre of the National University of Singapore, are pro-active and they believe in preventive medicine. Before the onset of the pandemic, they were involved in the first study in Asia on the therapeutic rainforest programme. The weekly mindful walking in the rainforest of the Singapore Botanical Gardens aimed to enhance their physical, mental and social well-being ( results in book ‘Nature. Health. Happiness’, published by Write Edition 2020).
When Samuel Pepys wrote about the pestilence in 17th century London in social isolation, he suffered subtle feelings of paranoia and melancholia – his physician thought it was due to an excess of black bile causing an imbalance of the ‘humours’ in his body.
Because of existential fear and restriction, the NaMAS group is not walking together in the parks, but they meet virtually through Zoom, the video conferencing platform. As I listen to their intense conversations – the profound questions and repartees – I am pleased that no one exhibited any sinister signs of paranoia or melancholia; all twenty friends are totally compos mentis.
Dr Kua Ee Heok is Tan Geok Yin Professor in Psychiatry and Neuroscience, NUS, Emeritus Consultant, NUH and Psychiatrist, Mind Care Clinic, Farrer Park Medical Centre
Suggested Reading: “Mental health in a pandemic” by Rathi Mahendran and Kua Ee Heok
Chapter in a new book “Handbook of Pandemic Management – the case of Covid-19“