**3. Loneliness and mental health**

According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O)., mental health is a "state of wellbeing in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with normal stressors of life, work positively and fruitfully and is able to make a

#### *The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102947*

contribution to his or her community" [8]. Keyes identified 3 components of mental health: emotional, psychological and social well-being and its definition is said to be influenced by the culture that defines it [9].

Psychological distress, a common mental health disorder is defined as a state of emotional suffering typically characterized by symptoms of depression and anxiety [10]. An important point to remember here is that, mental health can change over time, and depends heavily over the prevailing conditions. More so, when the demand exceeds the resource of coping abilities, it is heavily impacted. People became vulnerable to psychological impact of COVID-19 infection due to both the pandemic and its cascading consequences worldwide including lockdown and economic recession. It negatively affected people's mental health and created new barriers for ones already suffering from mental illness. A broad body of work links social isolation and loneliness to both poor mental and physical health. Loneliness and frustration seemed to originate from inhibition of daily activities, interruption of social necessities and inability to indulge in social networking, leading to psychological distress and progressing to unhealthy ways of coping in form of overeating and substance abuse [11]. This abrupt situation exposed that individuals were largely emotionally unprepared to the detrimental effects of biological disasters and everyone was feeling frail and helpless. It had a remarkable and variable psychological impact in various countries, depending on the phase of the pandemic. Also, certain features were distinct to psychological presentations of the catastrophe. First, the overlapping of psychological issues was very frequent i.e. anxious people may also have depression and smoke or drink alcohol to reduce the problem. Second, normal individuals presented with psychological problems were overwhelmed by an exceptional stressor. And thirdly, a huge number of people presenting with pandemic associated psychological disturbances got better naturally over time or with brief psychological support. As a consequence, these presentations did not necessarily lead to an overtly psychiatric diagnosis. A report published by W.H.O. following a survey conducted on 130 countries provides the first global data screening the devastating impact of COVID-19 in form of compromised access to mental health services, reduced compliance and poor supervision of patients leading to disruption of mental health services in nearly 93% of countries worldwide, while the demand kept on increasing, underscoring the urgent need for surge in funding [12]. Unfortunately, in a frantic search for biological cure and vaccines against the virus, these issues were all the more neglected, contributing to an increased public health burden. Forced into physical separateness we were united by a common trauma, a common fear as all of us were terrified for our own safety and that of our loved ones.
