key: cord-0844379-rysuzmu9
authors: del Castillo, Fides A
title: Self-actualization towards positive well-being: combating despair during the COVID-19 pandemic
date: 2021-05-17
journal: J Public Health (Oxf)
DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab148
sha: 78f76f20568ebcfa4a5239d9bf09fe9ab326859f
doc_id: 844379
cord_uid: rysuzmu9

The pandemic has brought great distress to the majority of the population in the world. Some adverse effects of the pandemic are depression and other mental illnesses. To attain positive well-being, self-actualization in the social determinants of health plays a crucial role. This paper hopes to contribute to the fight against despair during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dear Editor, The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges and major impact on health and wealth of nations. 1 It shattered many dreams, halted normalcy and brought pain to many families who lost their loved ones. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate has peaked as high as 16%. 2 Economy experience recession due to strict community lockdowns to mitigate the spread of the virulent disease. Jobs were scarce, and ordinary people lost financial capabilities to provide basic needs for their families. Likewise, many people experienced distraught when they drastically lost their loved ones. Family members were confronted with physical, emotional and mental health problems. As of this writing, there are almost three million deaths around the world that are COVID-19 related. 3 Some adverse e ects of these hostile conditions are depression and other mental illnesses. People need to find new ways to combat mental health in life and rise against these odds. Self-actualization in the social determinants of health plays a crucial role in attaining positive well-being among the individuals during the pandemic.

Maslow described self-actualization as the highest in the human's hierarchy of needs. 4 It is viewed as the level where one is motivated to seek the ideals in life. Self-actualization involves the need to progress and grow rather than to be static. It is seeking meaning and purpose in life. A recent study shows that treatment process that seeks self-actualization, like logotherapy, reduce death anxiety and depression in some patients with depression. 5 By pursuing self-actualization through finding meaning and happiness in life, individuals lead themselves towards positive well-being.

During this trying time, every person exhausts themselves to fill the individual human needs. Basic needs ought to be achieved, including physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and cognitive. However, one must go beyond the basics and discover a higher purpose in life. This includes making oneself and other people authentically happy. One way to achieve this is by providing spiritual care to self and others. This can be done through meditation, prayer and self-healing to achieve positive well-being. Self-care leads to personal growth to alleviate oneself adverse conditions. Moreover, every individual can provide care towards other people by showing compassion to those struggling with emotional and mental problems. It is the duty and responsibility of being human to be compassionate. Duty is actualizing the recognition that we are our sisters' and our brothers' keepers. Hence, we have to motivate ourselves to do higher purpose to find meaning and happiness in life. With the rising toll of death and cases of COVID-19, the world needs more people who are self-actualized and compassionate to battle against despair and achieve positive well-being.

No funding was received for this paper. The author declares that she has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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