The good and the bad, the easy and difficult parts of writing a news story of mental health during a time of SA's COVID19 lockdown.
Welcome to this blog post everyone. This part will be used to look at how easy and difficult it was to write about mental illnesses in South Africa.
“Just a heads up, it was a long process full of emotional turmoil”
To understand this, keep reading.
Coronavirus, a breeding ground for insanity: A reflection after all is said and done
This was quite a different and challenging experience compared to how the student has written a news story before. The steps were all different and jumbled. The student had to change the story topic several times; mainly because the potential people who could’ve been interviewed were no longer able to go outside and do their work and were thus not able to be asked for interviews. So finding the right topic and story to suit this turbulent time for an issue in the Faerie Glen community was very hard. This is also because of the many challenges of interviewing people during a time of crisis.
This writers block and lack of inspiration went on for months till the student realised there was indeed a worthwhile subject to write about that had been right there all along and this was concerning an issue plaguing SA’s now online community that were complaining.
But this was only after the student’s friend attempted suicide, although his story will not be mentioned today since he wished to remain anonymous.
Very soon after asking several people though, two interviewees became the main focuses since they had been the only ones to get back and agree to full heartedly do the interview since they had already struggled with depression and other mental health issues for years, so they were much more comfortable giving their stories.
To prevent spreading of COVID19, the student sent out notes of interview questions on WhatsApp and they answered on WhatsApp voice notes. The final two photos themselves were actually taken casually just before coronavirus lockdown began (since the interviewer and interviewees are friends) and were only discovered later and then edited and adapted for this story and were meant to show why people suffer the way they do and for who.
After doing the interviews and some online research, I had in fact realised how out of control the mental health situation was, lockdown had not only caused peoples deaths through the actual disease but also through starvation and increasing suicides after many people lost their jobs and support structures.
They interviewees also made it abundantly clear that their issues had become worse as a result of SA’s lockdown and online and digital community did not help or heal them like face to face contact did. One of the interviewees even cut their own hair and both had several mental breakdowns. I had found that many people stay connected online with loved ones and friends but they did not experience the same comfort as they did when they were physically there.
What made writing this news story and topic easy and difficult, was the student’s own experiences with isolation, depression and lack of access to support structures and therapy. The student has started noticing that there were even some reversions back to childhood behaviors to cope with the situation, such as curling under desks and rocking back and forth. Many other people have similarly started seeking other vices in order to maintain their sanity.
One thing is for sure though, people have been able to reflect on themselves deeply and the good, bad and ugly have all reached the surface; which can be horrible and helpful. Though, without proper help and acknowledgment of this mental health crisis during coronavirus lockdown, the crisis and issues that online community comment on will only get worse.