Lived experiences of the corona survivors (patients admitted in COVID wards): A narrative real-life documented summaries of internalized guilt, shame, stigma, anger

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a disaster for the human beings. All the Governments across the globe have been preparing to deal with this medical emergency, which is known to be associated with mortality in about 5% of the sufferers. Gradually, it is seen that, many patients with COVID-19 infection have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. Due to the risk of infecting others, persons with COVID-19 infection are kept in isolation wards. Because of the isolation, the fear of death, and associated stigma, many patients with COVID-19 infection go through mental distress. In this report, we discuss the experience of 3 persons diagnosed with COVId-19 infection and admitted to the COVID ward.2. Lived Experience: "Dilemma of being a leader-why did I infect others, how will I face my colleagues?" 49 years old male, a village leader, was admitted after he was found to be COVID-19 positive. As reported by him, as far he recollects, he possibly got infected during the visit to the hospital. He did not have any severe respiratory distress during the hospital stay and after 3-4

COVID-19 Psychological Implications: The Role of Shame and Guilt

“…Untreated guilt that is related with a stressor event can be associated with severe mental health complications including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, problematic substance use, and poorer functioning and quality of life (Tracy et al, 2007;Bryan et al, 2014;Browne et al, 2015;Griffin et al, 2019). Also, in COVID-19 stress-related events, maladaptive guilt can result when distress is taken as evidence of wrongdoing (e.g., "I feel terrible so I must have done something horribly wrong") and making it impossible to evaluate actual evidence and come to an accurate perspective or change one's behavior, thereby maintaining and worsening personal distress (Haller et al, 2020;Sahoo et al, 2020). This type of emotion involves feelings of personal hyper-responsibility over aspects that the individual has little or no control.…”

“…"I didn't pay enough attention, " "I made a bad mistake"). Narrative lived experiences reported by Sahoo et al (2020) evidenced that feelings of guilt of infecting near and dear ones adds on to the pain of remaining social isolated from the family in a "locked up" state that can have disruptive consequences on emotional reaction and impulsivity. These negative effects may be also mediated by a partial sleep deprivation that can be related with high-perceived stress amplified by quarantine conditions (Zhao et al, 2020).…”

“…The shame of infecting others for COVID-19 patients is a key element to handle and understand during admission/ward stay and during quarantine (Sahoo et al, 2020). Narrative lived experiences of patients with COVID-19 evidenced shameful intrusive thoughts and the fear of being stigmatized by friends, colleagues, and neighbors (Sahoo et al, 2020).…”

Predictors of Psychiatric Disorders or uses of Psychotropic Drugs in Patients with Confirmed COVID-19 During Treatment in a Hospital : A Retrospective Chart Review Running title : Mental health of COVID-19 patients

“…Married subjects were at risk of being diagnosed with mental disorders in this study. They had more worries than single patients, which included worries about taking care of children, leaving home, spouses who may have also contracted COVID-19, various troublesome events occurring in families, or economic burdens suffered during hospitalization [14]. Many clusters of infection have been found within familial households.…”

“…The patient could rate each question from 0 to 3 to provide a severity score ranging from 0 to 27. We de ned depression severity as being no depression (1-4), mild depression (5-9), moderate depression (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately severe depression (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and severe depression (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). We considered signi cant depression to be present when the total score was 10 or higher.…”