Mental health
Pandemics are not good for mental health.
The coronavirus crisis poses the greatest threat to mental health since the second world war, with the impact to be felt for years after the virus has been brought under control, the country’s leading psychiatrist has said.
Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said a combination of the disease, its social consequences, and the economic fallout were having a profound effect on mental health that would continue long after the epidemic is reined in.
Bad things are happening and they’re making people anxious and sad.
Modelling by the Centre for Mental Health forecasts that as many as 10 million people will need new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the coronavirus epidemic. About 1.3 million people who have not had mental health problems before are expected to need treatment for moderate to severe anxiety, and 1.8 million treatment for moderate to severe depression, it found.
Even surviving the damn thing can mess you up.
The threat to mental health has been used as an argument against lockdowns, but James said the mental health grounds for controlling the virus should not be ignored. Beyond the fear of becoming infected or having vulnerable loves ones fall ill, suffering severe disease can trigger mental health problems. About a fifth of people who received mechanical ventilation during the spring developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
I’m surprised it’s not more.
For some of us, a lockdown would improve our mental health, because we are terrified of catching a disease that could potentially kill us. We have other conditions that make us higher risk, and we see that our neighbors don’t give a flying fuck, so we wish they would lock us down, make sure people who can’t do their job from home have some way to survive, and limit the amount of people utilizing essential services, like grocery stores, at a time to allow safety for both customers and workers.
So my mental health continues to deteriorate. I cannot return to work physically for the spring semester without risk of severe, paralyzing panic attacks. My boss doesn’t care. Let me catch COVID and die; there are plenty out there with credentials in my field waiting to replace me (I will point out, it isn’t quite that easy if you are asking them to relocate to rural Nebraska). My physical health? Who cares? Reject the doctor’s recommendation (they did) and require me to return. My mental health? I have little hope there. First, I’ve had diagnoses weaponized against me by bosses in the past. Second, I know this place has weaponized diagnoses against other people. Third, it won’t make a goddamn bit of difference to them. They are on a power trip, and it feels good to them to override my doctor’s orders and tell me I must put my health (physical and mental) at risk.
Too many people still think of mental health as something wrong, bad, or in many cases, selfish.