Breathe easy to beat Covid blues

What nobody is taking note of is mental health that seems to have become a parallel pandemic. Out of depression or fear, some are resorting to extreme steps like suicide. It should stop. The best way to keep away from fear or depression is to do breathing exercises try to be optimistic and make some changes in your lifestyle, says

Dr Purnima Nagaraja consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dhrithi Wellness clinic in an exclusive interview to Meghna Nath

Once a person is tested positive he tends to get panicky and nervous. He is also said to face neurological problems and becomes depressed. What should one do to avoid such complications?

If one is depressed and anxious do breathing exercises everyday apart from changes in lifestyle. No need to have fatalist views, try to be optimistic as possible, start the day with a good thought and reassure yourself that this would pass off. Be careful and tell yourself, "I am going to take good care of myself. Listen to bed times stories on YouTube before you go to sleep. Have proper diet. If you feel that your family members won't understand then you can consult a health professional.

How can one remain cool and calm during the period of quarantine? How should family members behave with a person who is quarantine as some complain that they feel ostracized in their own house?

Yes you might feel ostracized but today we have technology on hand, you can make a zoom call to your friends and also call your family members sitting outside your house. Don't make the person feel like a outsider who is quarantine, may be you are inside the room but all our love surrounds you, we are there to help you, so whenever you feel lonely try to send messages or do zoom call this may help the person who is quarantine to pull out from the reverie. This is good time that you can become social media influencers, you can make a healthy post on how to deal with issues.

Is meditation useful during quarantine. What exercises would you suggest?

If you have symptoms of mental health only it is useful. It would be better if you do Sudoku, cross word, puzzles and many more mind games all of these are very good for cognitive progress . To calm yourself down I would suggest do some painting and it is proven to have calming effect, also you can do art therapy and also you can do dance , it is therapeutic and you can try to learn a new language that will help to retain your mental health and help to retain your attention span. You can also do physical exercise like yoga, stretching and many more.

Many environmentalists advise to make such people take up planting saplings. Is it advisable?

Environmentalist are right in a way because more trees we plant it is better for the world. Some news say if you plants trees your oxygen level would increase but it is not correct, a person who has a lung damage will definitely need oxygen cylinder. There is need to understand what is myth and what is reality.