Isolation during the quarantine period has encouraged and increased the use of sedatives.
Author: Enejda Groshi, Jurgen Bame
According to some pharmacies in Tirana, it is learned that during this time about 30% more antidepressants were sold. The most common symptoms that citizens have expressed when they have gone to the pharmacy are insomnia, anxiety and blood pressure fluctuations. In addition to vitamins and herbal sedatives, pharmacists say that there has also been demand for sleep aids or real antidepressants with a doctor's consultation, such as lorazepam , alprazolam or citalopram . Isolation measures to protect against the "invisible enemy", the coronavirus, have left a silent enemy in the background - mental health problems!
According to clinical psychologist Enertila Bekteshi, the measures taken by the government, isolation, disconnection from work and social life bring negative consequences on mental health. "Of course, the situation we are going through is not healthy in terms of mental and emotional health. Faced with this situation, a significant number of people have begun to seek help from specialists. Psychologists have had a special importance and have welcomed an unusual number of cases ," says the psychologist.
The World Health Organization has warned that the pandemic crisis and the restrictive measures that many countries are taking to curb the spread of the virus can negatively affect people's mental health. "Isolation, physical distancing, school and workplace closures are challenges that affect us and it is natural to feel stress, anxiety, fear and loneliness at this time," said Hans Kluge , director of the WHO's European branch.
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection has made available a free green line for psychological counseling to every citizen regarding COVID-19.
To learn more about this initiative, as well as to be informed about the number of calls made to this line, we sent the Ministry of Health a request for information on May 7th and, despite requests via email and phone calls, the information was not provided.
Considering the irresponsibility of the institution to send the information within the deadline and in the required format, we decided to test the green line to prove its effectiveness.
The call lasted more than 16 minutes with the psychologist, to whom we expressed the "problems" that the pandemic had caused us. From the tests we did with this line, the service proved to be efficient, but, as the psychologist also pointed out, Albanians still find it difficult to express themselves about problems related to their mental health, and this makes online consultation somewhat difficult.
The Order of Psychologists also took the initiative of providing free online psychological assistance to all people experiencing emotional difficulties while coping with quarantine.
Staying in isolation and social distancing for more than 2 months has influenced the increase in emotional load, the experience of anxiety, sleep disorders, as well as the increase in the level of stress in coping with everyday life among citizens.
These are the most frequent concerns experienced by Albanians, who were forced to seek the help of a psychologist. In almost 50 days of free service, about 800 calls were made for psychological consultations. The figure is high, taking into consideration the cultural factors for the approach to the psychologist. 130 professional psychologists assisted the population mainly over the phone.
"The number of calls was very high and beyond our expectations. This caused the end date of the initiative to be postponed until May 10," says the president of the Order of Psychologists, Dr. Valbona Treska. The service is provided online and this has been an innovation in providing assistance, both for the population and for the psychologists themselves, who in the nature of their work have face-to-face consultations, says Dr. Treska.
The highest number of calls comes from big cities, which have also had the largest number of affected people, such as Tirana, Durres, Shkodra and Lezha.
"It is worth noting that in Tirana and Durrës people have not yet recovered from the consequences of the November 26 earthquake and for citizens the situation created by the coronavirus is like a second wave of panic and fear. This makes calls from these cities more frequent ," says Ms. Treska.
Regarding age, there has been an influx of phone calls and online consultations from people aged 30-35.
What has been found is a higher demand for consultations from women with children, who have found it much more difficult to manage this quarantine period. They have had to manage many things at the same time: layoffs and isolation, managing children, taking care of the home and much less time for themselves than usual, stress about tomorrow and economic uncertainty.
Although the age group most at risk from COVID-19 has been over 60 years old, an almost incalculable percentage of citizens of this age have sought help.
The President of the Order of Psychologists says that one of the factors for this low percentage of people over 50 who have sought help is the mentality that is not open to the profession of psychologist in general or even access to social networks or the web to identify lists of psychologists.
Minors, included in the age group of 10-18 years, occupy a significant percentage of data submission. With prior parental approval, there were direct consultations with minors. Their number has increased during the last 3 weeks of service.
" We have had an increased influx of consultations requested by adolescents. The lack of time slots for them to leave their homes, the fear of COVID, the problems encountered with online learning, the lack of direct social contacts, necessary for a teenager, which have superimposed on the problems of age, have resulted in a high percentage of the need for consultations with a psychologist. We consider this result to be an alarm bell and that special attention should be paid to this age group with social policies and activities that focus on their psychological well-being ," says the president of the Order of Psychologists.
In terms of gender, 70% of calls for psychological counseling online are made by women.
"In the first days, we had a higher number of calls from men, a ratio which has been reversed very quickly."
Regarding the problems, what is observed is that a very high percentage of consultations were made specifically for problems with anxiety, sometimes accompanied by panic attacks, as well as emotional burdens.
Marital problems account for 8% of the total number of calls.
Quarantine and domestic violence
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection has called on anyone facing domestic violence to report it to the free women's advice line, 116/117, as well as to the State Police, 129/112.
From the data provided by the Ministry of the Interior, it is learned that during the month of March 2020 there were reports of 249 cases of violence and other crimes, which occurred in family relationships, or 72 cases less than during the month of February 2020; whereas during the month of March 2019, the police recorded a total of 390 cases of violence and other crimes that occurred in family relationships.
During the quarantine, freedom is the most searched word on Google.
Search engine data provided by Monitor magazine shows that the search term " leje për eksal" (leave permission) is at the top of the search results . In second place in the search results is shqipëriaqëduam.al.
According to Monitor.al , the increase in clicks for this online page is related to the direct initiative of the Prime Minister who on March 24 decided for all citizens who wanted to communicate with him to write precisely on this platform; while the third most clicked word remains Covid-19.
For psychologist Enertila Bekteshi, the situation we are going through seems like a great collective experiment that changed our daily lives. “I would like the isolation to serve as a positive reflection on our thinking and interaction with others.”
Until this whole situation changes and we return to normality, it is still unknown what other social consequences this pandemic will leave. "In terms of social consequences, divorce could certainly be one of them, but the increase in people with mental health problems could also be present among us."
The situation created by the pandemic revealed only the tip of the iceberg of mental problems, which have been present in society for years. Official institutions should always prioritize initiatives related to the mental health of their citizens to detect these problems in time, so that mental health concerns or disorders do not "explode" immediately during social, economic or political crises.
