“As the patient is kept away from human contact, COVID takes a toll on them”: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan writes on alarming effects of COVID-19 on mental health

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is undergoing treatment for coronavirus at a hospital here, has opened about the psychological state struggles COVID-19 patients face under isolation so as to curb the spread of the disease.

The 77-year-old actor and his son, actor Abhishek Bachchan were admitted to the isolation ward of Nanavati Hospital on July 11 after they tested positive for the virus.

In his blog on Saturday, Amitabh said the mental condition brought upon by the disease takes a toll on the patient together is kept faraway from human contact.

“The psychological state sparks from the stark reality that the COVID patient, put in hospitalised isolation, never gets to ascertain another human for weeks. There are the nurses and therefore the doctors on visit and medicine care but they ever appear in PPE units,” the screen icon wrote.

He said one doesn’t get to understand the faces behind the private Protective Equipment (PPE) because the healthcare workers take extreme precautions and deliver “what is prescribed and leave”.

“Leave because longer stay has the fear of contamination. The doctor under whose guidance the care and mapping and reports are governed by, never ever comes near you to offer a hand of assurance, a private detail of the treatment within the close proximity of an assurance.”

The communication is virtual, Amitabh said, which is that the best way under the present situation, but remains “impersonal”.

The actor, who occasionally updates his fans on social media about his health, said the stigma of getting been COVID-19 positive are some things which a patient may wrestle with once the institutional isolation is over.

“Does it have an impact psychologically mentally? Psychologists say it does. Patients after release are tempered, they’re given to consultation with professional mind talkers.

“They are afraid to be publicly for fear or apprehension of being treated differently, treated together that has carried the disease, a pariah syndrome. Driving them into deeper depression and within the loneliness that they need just begin of,” he noted.

Highlighting his own state, Amitabh wrote he sings to stay himself entertained within the loneliness.

“In the darkness of the night and therefore the shiver of the cold room, I sing .. eyes enclose attempted sleep .. there’s nobody about or around .. and therefore the freedom to be ready to do this will extend i do know if within the Will of the Almighty there’s release,” he said.

On Thursday, the Bollywood veteran dismissed reports that he has tested negative for coronavirus and called the piece of stories “an incorrigible lie”.

Amitabh’s daughter-in-law, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 46, and his eight-year-old granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan also tested positive for COVID-19 and were shifted to Nanavati last week.