Feeling Foggy, Anxious, and Drained? Delhi’s Toxic Air Could Be to Blame
The toxic air, combined with the government’s apathy and inaction, is taking a toll on Delhiites’ mental health.
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"I wake up with a heaviness in my chest. I look outside my window, and the dreary grey fills me with more dread. Functioning feels impossible at this time, and I don't know how fix it," says Shweta, a 28-year-old in Delhi.
In Delhi, where the air quality has swung between the “very poor” and “severe” range for weeks now, the smog isn't just choking lungs. It is also impacting cognitive function and worsening the mental health of residents.
Young people across the city are reporting heightened anxiety, low moods, brain fog, constant fatigue, and more frequent migraines as a result of the toxic air.
Anxiety, Depression, Impaired Cognitive function
Twenty-two-year-old law student Ramnit Kaur says she has struggled with anxiety and depression for years, but around this time of the year, her symptoms always seem to worsen.
"I can't tell that the causation is definitely pollution, but it's a pattern I notice every year," she says.
She isn’t imagining the link. Experts say there’s a definite connection between air pollution and mental health, both direct and indirect, and a growing body of research backs it up.
A review of multiple research papers by Oxford University researchers found evidence that both indoor and outdoor air pollution can contribute to serious mental illnesses.
Dr Sandeep Vohra, a senior neuropsychiatrist in Delhi, explains that while more research is needed in the Indian context, "we do see that as air pollution rises, people tend to become more anxious and have more episodes in which they feel low."
For one, it is a known fact now that exposure to air pollution directly impacts brain function.
The symptoms are subtle at first—fatigue, headaches, memory issues, lack of focus and attention and an inability to execute tasks that used to feel easy.
But when this keeps happening, it begins to chip away at one’s mental and emotional health too.
"It's just a very frustrating state to be in. And I am so angry every single day," Trishna, 32, who works in a high-pressure job, tells The Quint that she too has been experiencing constant headaches and what she describes as 'brain fog' of late.
In Delhi, pollution peaks during winter, a time when sunlight and visibility are already low, and people prone to seasonal depression often begin to feel its effects. At a time like this, when you are surrounded by thick, dreary smog day after day, the gloom in the air can aggravate seasonal depression too.
“Winter depression is already quite common,” explains Dr Vohra. “During colder months, pollution particles linger longer in the air because of lower temperatures. This not only worsens air quality but also increases the chances of people experiencing depressive symptoms.”
‘Pushed Indoors, and Into Isolation'
In cities like Delhi, air pollution has taken away outdoor life, pushing residents indoors and into isolation. Less physical activity, limited social interaction, and more screen time, are all indirectly adding to the mental health crisis.
Trishna, who lives alone in Delhi, says that women like her have fought hard to reclaim small slices of freedom—to travel alone, have a social life, or simply take a walk by themselves in the evening.
"That was a fight for more independence," she says, and in a sense the pollution is curbing this freedom.
The impact of lesser outdooor time and more indoor confinement is stark in adolescents and kids who are in a vital stage of development.
Dr Amit Sen, Founding Cohort, IMHA, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Co-founder at Children First tells The Quint, winters in Delhi were once the city’s most cherished months, the season of picnics, festivals, and family outings, but now, the smog has turned that joy into dread.
The emotional fallout of it runs deep. “What we see on the surface, irritability, anxiety, outbursts, often hides an underlying grief,” he says, adding,
'We’re Choking, and They Don’t Seem to Care'
"I'm angry, and I feel dejected because you see the apathy of the government and all institutions that can take action, but haven't," says Trishna. Her frustration is shared by residents across Delhi, and it was this collective anger bubbling over that brought many to India Gate on the evening of 10 November.
Tanya, a 21-year-old student of Delhi University who was at the protest, recounts, "There were children as young as eight and adults as old as sixty. Collectively also a lot of anxiousness was shared among the people."
Speaking about why she was there, Tanya says, "Almost everyone I know gets sick around this time, and it’s become so normalised that we just accept it as part of the season. But this time, it felt even worse.
Indeed, data shows that Delhi’s air quality deteriorated sharply after Diwali. A ground report by The Quint recorded AQI levels across the city, revealing a nearly twofold increase in several areas.
But the government has been coy in acknowledging the issue. CM Rekha Gupta claimed that the overall pollution levels this year were “lower than last year”.
"Last year the AQI was 500, touched 1,000. This is a disease we inherited. But since the government led by (Delhi CM) Rekha Gupta ji came into power, we are succeeding in cleaning up every month,” Delhi’s Environment Minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times .
The Delhi government was also accused of manipulating AQI data in the days following Diwali, after water tankers were seen sprinkling water around the monitoring station in Anand Vihar.
Trishna says this obsession with optics is harmful because when the government downplays the issue, other institutions, workplaces and even the public, don't take it as seriously as they should.
The government’s handling of citizens voicing their protest has only deepened people’s anxiety, hopelessness, and frustration, say those who were present at the site.
A day after the protest, Sirsa dismissed it as not being a “public protest,” denying that it reflected the sentiments of the general public.