Part 1: Description of current event
Covid-19 is an infectious disease that is spreading in many parts of the world. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the economies of many countries and affecting the economies of many countries. Many infected people report moderate to mild illness and recover without any intervention by medical experts. However, people with underlying medical conditions are at a greater risk. The health departments have developed protocols to reduce the spread of infections in various countries. Such measures include social distancing, the use of masks, and regular cleaning of hands with an alcohol-based sanitizer. According to the World Health Organization, many people have suffered mental complications during the covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to explain mental health during the covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 pandemic has a huge impact on the mental health of people in many countries in the world. According to the world health organization, when people are responding to pandemics, stress, worry, and fear are common observations among the people (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020) . Apart from the fear that emanates from the risk of contracting the diseases, there are also negative psychological impacts associated with government activities such as restriction of movement to slow down the rate of spread of the infection. Many people have changed their normal working habits, such as suffering from temporary unemployment. Many organizations facing low revenues from the pandemic have laid down workers temporarily as they seek to remain in operation. There are detrimental mental impacts associated with layoffs. Working from home is another aspect of the pandemic that has affected many people mentally and psychologically. People who have taken pay cuts during the pandemic face challenges meeting their usual household and general expenses. This triggers health complications.
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Fear and anxiety strike people as their loved ones are taken for isolation. The isolation also increases anxiety and increase stress levels. When people execute measures such as social distancing, they feel lonely. Covid-19 has changed many aspects of human life, which has resulted in mental health complications. Many people develop fears of them or their loved ones being infected, job losses and other financial situations, and unavailability of essential services (Xiong et al., 2020) . Mental health has also been triggered by changes in eating and sleeping patterns. Many people have difficulties in concentrating and sleeping. Sleep is essential; lack of enough sleep leads to mental health related complications. People with mental health conditions tend to deteriorate during pandemics. Increasing stress levels exaggerate pre-existing mental conditions. An increase in stress levels also contributes to increasing drug and substance use. The use of drugs worsens mental conditions in patients during pandemics, such as covid-19.
During the covid-19 pandemic, some people and groups are more vulnerable compared to others. People with pre-existing mental conditions are more vulnerable. After the infection, many people are resilient and succeed to combat psychopathology.
Part 2: Textbook concept
Many people tend to use the concept of psychopathology to refer to mental health. Psychopathology can be viewed from several conceptions. As statistical deviance, psychopathology is viewed as a deviation from the psychological normality (Maddux & Winstead, 2016) . As a dysfunctional behavior, psychopathology is viewed as experiences and behaviors that are not statistically abnormal and dysfunctional. On the other aspect, psychopathology is viewed as social deviance. It conceives psychopathology as behavior that tends to deviate from the cultural and social norms.
For many decades, the science of psychology has related human behavior to the foundation of the brain. To generate a better understanding of anxiety disorders, there is a need to examine the underlying theory. Severe mental health complications are medical illnesses that tend to express psychopathology. The statistical standards and formal principles define psychopathology and mental health disorders as either well specified and widely accepted.
There are several causes of anxiety. The first cause is social cognitive causes. It is possible to examine the social cognitive comparative ability to forecast performance-related anxiety arousal. It encompasses how people become frightened during the series of behavioral tests (Maddux & Winstead, 2016) . The previous tests indicate that people's anxiety is heavily influenced by anticipated anxiety and panic. People tend to exhibit high self-efficacy for carrying out tasks. They are also likely to do the task with simplicity but with higher levels of anxiety. When people perceive themselves as vulnerable to panic and anxiety, it causes them to experience the actual anxiety and panic. Danger perceptions give rise to avoidance and anxiety; such people are likely to be involved in fear reactions (Maddux & Winstead, 2016) . During the phobia related tests, danger perceptions are perceived to be insignificant predictors of anxiety levels. The danger reappraisals do not comprise of a strong mechanism in cognitive-behavioral treatment. The relationship between avoidance and danger is complicated, and danger ideation is difficult to extract from avoidance and fear.
The other cause of anxiety and mental disorders is cognitive processing bias. Approaches involved in information processing result in anxiety partly to both unconscious and conscious cognitive bias. The social cognitive theory tends to concur with the idea that people process information differently. One factor that determines how people process information is the problems they face. People exhibit cognitive bias in processing information on possible threats and one's efficacy to manage the anticipated threats. Peoples sense to control their feelings of vulnerability and anxiety and other self-reflective concerns. Treatments that aim to interfere with cognitive bias show the capability to reduce anxiety among people. The rate of processing information lacks the ability to forecast subjective fear reactions and avoidance behavior.
According to the social cognitive theory, troubling thoughts such as worries and obsessions happen through a stream of consciousness and become problematic as people respond by interpreting them as maladaptive (Maddux & Winstead, 2016) . When people use avoidance by suppressing bothersome intrusions, neutralizing rituals tend to increase thought frequencies. There are some physiological approaches that are deployed to help people overcome rituals and avoidance. The treatment of compulsive behavior and phobia is critical in minimizing such behaviors and minimizing panic, fear, and obsessions. When people feel anxious about something, they tend to avoid it according to the social cognitive theory; therapists should guide people on how to abandon the avoidance maneuvers that only act to prolong their fears. Many phobic people engage in defensive behaviors that are recognized as safety behaviors when they executive phobia related tasks. Solving troubling thoughts is another essential factor in preventing mental illness (Maddux & Winstead, 2016) . Many people have troubled thoughts when faced with several challenges. The obsessions and worries are directed towards specified activities or stimuli. These are accompanied by behavioral and mental avoidance.
Anxiety disorders can be approached through examining disorders and anxiety. Answering the mental disorder theory helps to address the complex relationship between avoidance, anxiety, and phobia. Problems of psychopathology influence troubling thoughts, anxiety, compulsion, and phobia.
Part 3: Integration and synthesis
The integration of mental health and psychopathology indicates interesting aspects of people’s behavior during pandemics. People under stress and depression during pandemics are put under dysfunctional behavior, which is behavior that tends to deviate from the normal. People develop anxiety disorders during pandemics. Human behavior during pandemics is mainly determined by the brain foundation. During the covid-19 pandemic, severe mental complications comprise of medical illness that suppresses psychopathology (Czeisler et al., 2020) . During the covid-19 pandemic, the social cognitive theory has played an essential role in predicting and forecasting people's behaviors. During pandemics, many people feel insecure and anxious. By perceiving themselves as vulnerable, many people during pandemics are susceptible to exposure to the pandemic.
The major factor that impacts people's behavior and conducts during the covid-19 pandemics is increased stress levels. Many people have emotions about their vulnerable children and adults and people with underlying medical conditions. Government regulations and interventions such as social distancing make people feel isolated, further increasing the stress levels. Coping with stress is an effective approach during the covid-19 pandemic. Coping with stress will enable the community and the general population to be mentally stronger. Interventions by the public health mental experts are critical in enabling the people to cope with the increasing stress levels during the pandemic.
The interference with sleeping and eating patterns has an impact on social-cognitive development. It interferes with mental health by altering the levels of concentration. During the covid-19 pandemic, people have shown different reactions to stress. The major determinant of the reaction to stress is the availability of social support from friends and family and the individual's background. People with a poor social background are likely to suffer detrimental health impacts than people with strong social and economic background (Czeisler et al., 2020) . On the other hand, people with huge support from family and friends are able to cope with stressful covid-19 pandemic duration than people with detached social connections from family and friends. Other factors that determine the capability to deal with stress during the pandemic are financial situation, emotional and health background, and the community in which an individual lives.
People who are more vulnerable to pandemics, such as old people, people with severe illnesses, people with underlying medical conditions, and old people are more likely to develop higher stress levels (Greenberg et al., 2020) . Interacting with the community and friends helps to relieve stress. They are enabling people in the community to overcome their stress levels, despite regulations such as social distance. During the pandemic, people cope with stress by knowing where to get treatment and knowing what to do when they are diagnosed sick. Mental health is an important aspect of human wellbeing and overall health. It influences how people handle stress, relate with other people, and make choices during emergencies.
References
Czeisler, M. É., Lane, R. I., Petrosky, E., Wiley, J. F., Christensen, A., Njai, R., ... & Czeisler, C. A. (2020). Mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic—United States, June 24–30, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , 69 (32), 1049.
Greenberg, N., Docherty, M., Gnanapragasam, S., & Wessely, S. (2020). Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during covid-19 pandemic. bmj , 368 .
Maddux, J. E., & Winstead, B. A. (Eds.). (2016). Psychopathology: Foundations for a contemporary understanding . Routledge.
Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020). Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine .
Xiong, J., Lipsitz, O., Nasri, F., Lui, L. M., Gill, H., Phan, L., ... & McIntyre, R. S. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: A systematic review. Journal of affective disorders .
