As stigma wanes and people can better discuss mental illness, we learn just how much our environments affect our mental health. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, life’s challenges proved complicated when trying to navigate mental well-being. In 2019, just shortly before the first wave of the COVID-19 virus in March 2020, nearly 20 percent of adults experienced some form of mental illness. Rates of substance use increase for youth and adults every year, and several factors, including class and financial status, influence how quickly those people might find help. However, historians and pandemic specialists highlight unique challenges only crises occurring on such a global scale can create.
Be it collective trauma and grief, major shifts in workspaces and job market, dramatic changes to social and community interactions, or simply the added stress and uncertainty due to the nature of a pandemic, there are dozens of ways COVID-19 directly affects mental health and those with mental illness.
The stress of the pandemic
Pandemics throughout time have been known to dramatically shift the trajectory of human history. With significant change comes uncertainty, and of course, stress. As the effects of the pandemic continue to unfold, we can’t be entirely sure of COVID-19’s full repercussions. However, one thing experts tend to agree on is the collective stress such a pandemic has already put the world through.
This concept of collective stress has been called pandemic stress, collective trauma, and even mass trauma, defined as a trauma that affects and impacts entire groups of people, communities, and societies. The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 caused more collective trauma than World War II in that every individual in the world has been affected, directly or indirectly, and the effects are expected to last for years to come.
Studies show that about 1 in 3 people know someone who died of COVID-19. Those who may not know anyone must still face the constant reminders of living in a COVID-stricken society, including updates on new COVID strains, further information on the virus as scientists continue to learn, mask mandates, business, and restaurant restrictions, and seemingly neverending new updates. Also, in this age of technology and social media, it’s sometimes difficult to avoid, even if you want to.
In the first wave of COVID-19, businesses struggled to redefine workspaces to better suit demand, leading to record-breaking layoffs, furloughs, downsizing, and restructuring. Thousands of people were forced to rethink a work-life balance as work-life became work-from-home life. Others were laid off, later contributing to record numbers seeking unemployment benefits. During this uncertain time, even experts weren’t quite sure how long the pandemic would be such an influential factor in everyone’s lives.
While considered to be a normal part of life, stress, especially chronic stress triggered by a pandemic, can lead to significant health concerns. Chronic stress is one of the greatest factors leading to worsening mental illness and can even lead to new cases of depression and anxiety.
The mental health effects of COVID-19 restrictions
Due to the pandemic, self-isolation became the norm when we likely could have benefited from more community interaction. To halt the spread of coronavirus, festivals were canceled, bars closed, and restaurants began to only offer take-out. People were asked to avoid large gatherings, including church, parties, and weddings. At the height of the pandemic, experts even urged families to forgo funerals, a tough ask of people suffering from grief.
What will all the uncertainty and added stress, and inability to connect with loved ones in familiar ways, it’s no wonder calls to mental health hotlines rose by an average of 30 percent in 19 countries. The number of people seeking help for depression and anxiety increased an average of 76 percent between 2019 and 2020, and 70% of those people cited loneliness and isolation as one of the top contributing factors. Furthermore, an alarming study shows that people who contract COVID are more likely to develop depression, anxiety, and even dementia. Nearly 1 in five COVID-19 patients developed a mental health issue within three months of their diagnosis.
Not only do statistics show an increase of people seeking help for mental illness, but we also must consider people already struggling with mental illness before the pandemic began. The added stress and emotional strain of COVID-19 heighten pre-existing mental illness and can trigger even more adverse mental effects. Additionally, research shows the pandemic affects your mental health in many ways depending on what groups (age, career, race, etc.) you belong to.
For example, essential workers, who are more likely to be Black and low-income than non-essential workers, experience statistically far more burnout and chronic stress due to COVID. Healthcare providers show higher risks of exhaustion and adverse mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. And teens and young adults, or Generation Z, have reported higher stress levels over other age groups due to delays or total elimination of significant milestones and events (like college, graduation, birthdays, and more.).
Positive ways pandemic influences mental health industry
Conversations surrounding mental health continue to evolve, with COVID as an unlikely catalyst into some of the most significant shifts in the mental health industry than we’ve ever seen before. Rapid declines in mental health due to COVID forces mental health professionals to develop new and inventive ways to encourage improvements. Recently, some of the mental health industry’s most impressive minds met at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Mental Health, searching through 60 nominations to find valuable solutions to the worldwide mental illness crisis.
But it’s not just the experts who’ve begun speaking more openly about mental health. Many have bonded over social media to discuss the ways social isolation and time alone can positively impact if you have the proper coping mechanisms. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has added a strain to many of our lives, it also urges us to be more proactive as a society and as individuals in the fight for better mental health.
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