Mental health in the midst of the Coronavirus

As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, more than half of the states in the U.S. have called for statewide shutdowns and issued a stay at home order. Many Americans are engaging in social isolation and social distancing in order to flatten the curve of COVID-19. Unfortunately, this may have an unforeseen and possibly lasting impact on one’s mental health.

Emotions are heightened. The coronavirus causes stress, depression, and worst of all fear.

And while people focus on physical health and staying corona free they are quite possibly neglecting their mental health in the process. Anxiety is mainly caused by fear and in the thick of a pandemic and quarantine people are feeling that more and more.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, 36% of Americans are saying the coronavirus is having a serious impact on their mental health.

This stress, depression and anxiety are caused by a number of things related to the coronavirus; the main one being the fear of exposure and your loved ones contracting it. The cause differs for different age groups.

In children, people are concerned it may affect their mental development due to education systems being shut down and parents having to homeschool their children.

One parent, Lauren Jones stated, “I am not a good teacher and I never claimed to be. I’ve thought about homeschooling before but this has been a trial run and I now know I am not equipped to teach him myself.”

The quarantine situation is causing stress for the children as well as the parents and having to adjust to this new way of living causes issues to arise. Children are also missing out on social interactions with their peers.

Eight-year-old Danatus King is used to playing sports year-round and experts say playing on a team helps kids to develop important social skills. While the world is quarantining that development is put on hold which could have unknown effects on the mental development of that generation in the future.

“I wish I could go to my track meet. I miss my friends,”-Danatus King

COVID-19 is having a similar effect on young adults. It impacts their schooling and social development resulting in increasing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Unlike high schools, colleges are able to connect with students online and allow classes to continue in a different way. This proposes the problem of how to stay productive and on top of schoolwork when you can stay in bed a day without consequence.

Going to college is a process. Students physically go to classes and focus all their attention on that subject for that hour and fifteen minutes. But when students are home and are forced to create their own schedule of when they focus on a subject, they begin to feel overwhelmed by the workload.

According to Healthline, one in three first-year college students has reported having mental health issues due to the stress of college. And with online classes, students are given a whole new level of that stress.

With online classes, there is also less interaction with peers with group and partner assignments being almost non-existent. A study was done by Cigna shows that this age group is the loneliest of all. This loneliness would be a main mental issue as result of this group’s experience with social distancing.

In adults, the quarantine affects their job security and puts their parenting skills to the test.

Due to the closure of all non- essential businesses, 39% of Americans reported losing their jobs due to the pandemic. And with unemployment comes the stress of paying expenses and possibly not being able to take care of children and other loved ones.

On the other hand, adults with job security and children have to deal with their own set of challenges.

“I haven’t been alone with him [son Danatus King] for this long in a while and even during the summers he’s at camp so we aren’t used to being in each other’s faces all the time we’re going stir crazy,” said Lauren Jones.

This is even worse for adults who have kids and a work-from-home job because they have to handle two jobs at once which means everything is happening at the same time and in the same place.

With age comes a whole new set of problems.

Fear is the main result of the pandemic in the elderly because they have a higher risk of dying from the coronavirus. They also are more likely to have underlying health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, and many more that compromise your immune system.

Besides the fear, social distancing is having an effect on people who have had prior mental health issues. 26% of American adults suffer from a mental illness and 20% of people 55 and older according to the CDC and John Hopkins Medicine.

“I had problems before all of this but I had it under control and now it feels like the whole world is out of control,” stated Annette Lafargue.

Some mental health issues cause you to think in a constant cycle of negativity and when you have nothing else to do but think that can be too much for some people.

“Even when this is over, I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave the house. I’ll still be scared but my therapist says to take one day at a time”- Annette Lafargue

Mental health is important for people in all stages of life. Younger generations because it affects development and older generations because they have a lot more to lose if the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on our country. Fear is causing anxiety which ultimately leads to depression which is harder to escape when you can’t leave your house.

This is why mental health organizations are working to help people say mentally sane. There are many apps like Headspace, Calm, BetterHelp, etc. that are designed to help with staying mentally healthy and therapists have switched to phone call (teletherapy) only sessions to keep their patients safe as well as sane.

The Southeastern Counseling Center is an organization using teletherapy to help students and faculty mentally. And to go the extra mile they have been conducting virtual support groups to support the Southeastern family. Their resources specific to Southeastern students, faculty and staff are listed here SELU UCC.

If everyone does their part and takes care of themselves in all the ways that matter, we as Americans can overcome this setback and come out physically and mentally stronger for it.