This is the first sentence I wrote this week. I wrote it on Thursday. Like many people right now, I find work harder to get done, and even basic daily tasks feel harder than usual. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The pandemic has taken its toll on everyone’s mental health, and there is data to prove it.
While the economic consequences of a global pandemic have been widely debated, the toll it takes on our collective mental health is more difficult to quantify. It’s nearly impossible to stay home for months, cancel events for many years, and even disrupt basic routines like the way we do grocery shopping without a significant impact on our mental health. And yet it can feel like the impact of these changes is “just stress,” treating it as something to get through.
However, according to data from Mental Health America (MHA), more people are facing deteriorating mental health. From January through September 2020, the number of people undergoing MHA anxiety exams increased 93 percent from the year before. The organization’s depression screening is up 62 percent from its 2019 totals. Before the year was over, more people were trying to find out if they had anxiety or depression than ever before.
MHA isn’t the only organization with data pointing to the pandemic’s effects on mental health. A July 2020 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53 percent of adults said the pandemic was negatively impacting their mental health. Data collected from the CDC found that 41 percent of adults experienced symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder in December 2020, compared to 11 percent in January-July 2019.
All of this means that it is not you alone. Mental health problems are a natural response to a sustained traumatic event such as a pandemic.
Why a pandemic causes mental health problems
The pandemic has disrupted most aspects of our lives, but the added isolation of quarantines, social distancing, and canceled events is one of the greatest consequences of our collective mental health. It’s not just that we miss our friends and family. The social ties we have are support systems and safety networks. If these are gone or reduced, it can lead to an increase in anxiety or depression symptoms.
MHA’s vice president for mental health and systems advocacy, Debbie Plotnick, explained that one of the ways this can manifest itself – especially in young people – is self-harm. “In November, 53 percent of 11- to 17-year-olds – more than half of them – reported frequent suicidal thoughts or harming themselves.”
One of the main reasons, not only because of the thoughts of self-harm in young people, but also because of the psychological problems in people of all ages, is the distance we have had to maintain between each other. ‘We asked [the people who take MHA surveys] what bothers them – and remember they aren’t all young – and they tell us it’s loneliness and isolation. “
It may seem like isolation isn’t as bad as some of the other stressors a pandemic can trigger – loss of income, political unrest, and disrupted schedules – but it’s a crucial one. We need other people, and while digital connections like Zoom meetings or Discord parties are a great addition, it’s hard to be away from the people we care about for so long.
And then there is the practical impact. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, a quarter of adults in the US said they had trouble paying their bills since the start of the pandemic since September 2020. However, that number rises to 46 percent among households with lower income. “People who have jobs are very grateful,” explains Plotnick. “This is unbearable for people who lose their jobs.”