An 18-year-old boy living with relatives in Kathmandu was working to pay his way through college. He lost his job in a restaurant when it closed after the lockdown. The college also shut.
The adolescent boy went back to his district and was living with his parents and siblings for the past six months. He started feeling bored, frustrated, angry and developed negative thoughts.
He started getting flashbacks of his break-up, and the abuse that he faced from relatives in Kathmandu. He started blaming himself and his family for his poor economic condition and all the other problems.
He started smoking, and then moved on to drugs. His depression got worse and he started having suicidal thoughts, and began to behave aggressively towards family members. He avoided communicating with them, he was sleep deprived, lost his appetite, and was constantly restless. He tried to run away from home several times.
The boy’s behaviour stressed his parents, and his father called up the support group Koshish to see if they could help his son. But it was the father who also needed psychosocial counselling.
Techniques such as grounding, PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation), mindfulness exercise, thoughts tracking and management were applied during the counselling session to help both the boy and his father. The psychologist also used SET (Somatic Experience Therapy), where the boy’s feelings, body sensations were explored. His interest, resources, support system, strengths, positive ideas and thoughts were also developed, and this helped him be clear about his thoughts.
After the counselling session, the boy was on medication to manage his restlessness, sleep and appetite problems. He has now been able to banish negative thoughts, he does not behave in a violent manner anymore, and has given up smoking. Seeing the change in him, the boy’s father is also emotionally stabilised. He is still working on his problem, but has his family support.
“This tele-counseling has been helpful and effective,” the boy says. “I can feel my confidence level increase. I am sure that I can go back to my studies and lift the economic status of my family.”
The boy’s case is one of many in which the group Koshish has been involved with helping adolescents and others suffering from stress and psychosocial issues caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
To be sure, mental health was a serious problem in Nepal even before the pandemic, but Covid-19 has made it more acute. Because of the stigma associated with mental health, very few seek counselling and treatment, and organisations like Koshish are trying to break that taboo.
Koshish (which means ‘try’ in Nepali) has a toll-free counselling service for people all over Nepal. This has proved to be effective in connecting patients with counsellors when there are restrictions on travel.