As vaccinations ramp up and the pandemic slowly comes to an end, the idea of looking back on the events of 2020 and 2021 might not sound the most appealing. But like asparagus, crying, and push-ups, oftentimes events that seem painful actually prove to be healthy in the end. The symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic don’t only apply to the unfortunate people who contracted the virus. The mental health effects of social distancing and quarantining have been incredibly negative, to say the least.
A study conducted by Columbia University puts the anecdotal evidence we’ve all gathered throughout the last thirteen months into data. They surveyed over 225,000 people from around the globe on their mental health, and the results showed drastic increases in mental disorders when compared to previous years. Rates of depression rose 24%, and rates of anxiety rose 21%, with reasons cited for the development of these disorders including workplace closures, loss of jobs, and, specifically in Europe, public transportation shutdowns Combine these inconveniences with the lack of immediately available mental health resources, and crisis ensues.
A similar survey published in the Journal of Internet Medical Research studied similar effects, but moved the lens onto American university students. The study, conducted by five medical students, showed that “of the 195 students, 71% indicated increased stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 outbreak.” These findings stand as a dramatic difference when compared to the Columbia study, but the circumstances differ drastically as well. University students’ lives get almost entirely confined to the university, with their friends, food, and temporary homes all centering around the area. When that support system falls away, it becomes understandable that mental issues would increase.
So how can we manage this as the pandemic comes to its incredibly welcome end? The Lancet suggests a shift toward mental health treatment that focuses even more so on the long term, as in lifetime length. The organization suggests shifting mental health away from being an industry, and more as a system implemented into town and state governments, prioritizing “a reorientation towards user-defined outcomes”. In the short-term, remote therapy systems also became quickly adapted by many mental health practitioners. However, as someone who's gone to remote therapy, a number of ways to make this route more effective appear almost immediately, The easiest one would be to up the internet connectivity of the practices a bit more, as the dropping of calls caused complaints among many psychiatrists and therapists alike. Either way, plans will be in place soon enough, so perhaps we can manage the effects sooner rather than later.
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