World Health Organization defines the term 'Pandemic' as worldwide spread of a disease. The pandemic doesn't care about borders or walls.

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For past few months,  Coronavirus flu outbreak has brought the whole world to a halt. The flu bug which causes acute respiratory syndrome, is more contagious than SARS and causes more severe disease as compared to seasonal influenza virus.

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Amidst the outbreak, there is another pandemic which is creeping towards everyone but can't be seen, it's the pandemic of mental illnesses. As soon as the world started adopting 'social isolation and lockdown strategy' for containing the infection, mental health issues started increasing. Public health experts say, social distancing will have inevitable consequences on the mental health and well being of public, weather it be short term or long term. People with preexisting mental illnesses are in worst condition. Already, mental healthcare is negligible in Pakistan and now with the lockdown situation in the country, there are even lesser facilities available for mental health treatment.

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This pandemic has marginalized healthcare workers the most.  Even WHO has pointed out in its mental health context that stigmatization and harassment of disabled individuals, health care providers and officials are very normal during epidemics (Rubin & Wessely 2020, Shigemura et al. 2020) . Thus causing a psychological crisis among healthcare providers. This crisis is becoming gloomier in Pakistan because health workers here do not seek counselling and psycho-therapeutic interventions. The reason being: fear of labeling, stigmatization, discrimination (Zheng,2020) and ignorance.

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We must not underestimate the immense stress our healthcare providers are finding themselves in these unprecedented times. Be it the physical toll they are enduring everyday, or facing the high risk of catching the virus due to insufficient protective facilities , or emotional fatigue due to loss of social life. In short, it's been really tough for them. The seriousness of physical stress is causing further mental health issues which is affecting their decision making and problem solving capability. The severity of the issues is that, these circumstances can cause long-term detrimental effect on their overall well-being.

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In these circumstances it is vital to acknowledge the dilemma we are facing, the superheroes of our nation i.e. our doctors,nurses and paramedic staff, they all need counselling and psychotherapy. First step is to create awareness and next is to provide them top-notch facilities where they can vent out.