Young Indian adults coping with health issues post-pandemic

We’ve entered a post-COVID world, but one that has left India’s youth with a set of health challenges in its wake. “My father had a heart attack the year the pandemic broke, and I suddenly understood the importance of family,” he says, adding that the first person he confided in about the stress of the time was his mother. Stuck at home 24x7 during lockdown, “I would also snack unnecessarily and that would kill my hunger for regular meals most of the time.” The sudden shift in learning modalities stressed her so much that “I could not even clear a basic exam in typewriting – classes that I was learning for fun and as a skill acquisition,” she says. It was comforting at times to have my parents take care of me, but I lacked the kind of support system I had when I could go to school,” he says, adding that at the time he was not yet out to them as trans and couldn’t fully express his authentic self within the confines of home. “I never thought about therapy because I knew I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone, so I continued the fight on my own.” Today, she still has binge eating episodes, but is trying to live a healthier life: she’s quit smoking, gets in exercise, eats healthy to the extent she can, and spends time with the people she loves.