Ruminations: Mental Health Fallout from COVID Stress

"[Though women are likelier to admit to anxiety], my suspicion is there are more men who are anxious but they chose not to say so. [Even as people are searching out different ways to deal with coronavirus stress, alcohol as a choice is] deeply problematic and could haunt people in the future."
"[During the summer months, COVID declined and so did peoples' anxiety but now] more COVID, more problems. We need to get our game up."
Dr.David Gratzer, psychiatrist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto

"It's even left the people who don't trend into the territory of clinical diagnosis with a sense of impermanence and fragility that I think there is no comparison for."
"[The pandemic] has given us the sense that there can be something not which is immediate and horrifying, like 9/11 or a hurricane, but something that is sustained and completely changes the way that we interact and socialize with one another."
"[Our struggle is between uber-caution and under-caution] and we have to balance all the time the sense of the terrible physical risk attached to seeing people, and the sense of mental or psychological risk that is attached to not seeing people."
Andrew Solomon, writer, lecturer, professor of clinical psychology, Columbia University

"Until we have a better understanding of this virus, its behaviour and a vaccine, many people are going to experience stress."
"The psychological footprint of the pandemic is likely as big, if not bigger, than the medical footprint."
Dr.Gordon Asmundson, professor of psychology, University of Regina

The pandemic has brought with it numerous stressors, including health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, isolation and changes in home and work responsibilities. (Pixabay)

It was recognized early on in the global pandemic that the most critical change in people's lives requiring social isolation, distancing, mask-wearing, cautionary messages to refrain from undue exposure as protection against contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with the accompanying lock-downs of schools, businesses, gyms, restaurants, people would react to the burden of fear and isolation in a manner that would do them great psychological harm.

That focus on mental health problems scarring people's lives has led to surveys and research, all of which simply validate the initial concern, as health experts see a marked decline in mental stability in patient presentations. Simply put COVID-19 stress is taking its heavy toll on populations wherever it strikes. A new study and the polls it produced from a collaborative undertaking between Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Angus Reid Institute along with human resources firm Morneau Shepell, bring up a vision of a worrying issue of strained emotions.

The big question being asked and answers sought is how much of what people experience is to be considered normal human reaction to an absolutely abnormal situation? CAMH's national survey, still ongoing, conducted along with Delvinia, established that 24 percent of women experience higher levels of anxiety than men, at 18 percent; 29 percent of parents with children under age 18 at home are likelier to feel depressed, compared to 19 percent of adults with no offspring at home in the same age group.

The pandemic has increased stress levels (Piqsels)

In addition, 25 percent both of women and men stress over becoming infected with COVID-19; 29 percent of men and 23 percent of women cope with that stress by engaging in episodic heavy drinking. Seven months following the incursion of the first wave of the coronavirus, people are seen to be emotionally exhausted, reflecting the mental health index produced in the latest report by Morneau Shepell based on an online survey of 3,000 people in late August.

People are seen to be less work-motivated, are struggling to concentrate, have concerns over job security and their dwindling emergency savings. Juggling multiple 'mental and situational distractions added to work' has been a draining experience. Angus Reid finds the percentage of Canadians with the potential of being categorized as "The Desolate" -- people suffering from both loneliness and social isolation -- has increased from 23 percent of the population a year earlier to 33 percent at the present time.

"Most made an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by avoiding personal contact with others", the pollster revealed, even over the summer, in spite of reopened patios and beaches and opportunities to expand social 'bubbles'. The strain on many people represented by too much time alone took its toll, while for others alone-time is hard to find. Days spent confined to homes, the strain of lost employment, the missing physical connection with family and friends, all has been overwhelming to people who had never manifested mental illness, but now try to cope with anxiety and depression.

Frontline workers like nurses, doctors, personal support workers, first responders, retail clerks, all have been exposed to relentless stress, according to a Royal Society of Canada policy brief published this week. Those who experienced symptoms awaiting test results are full of anticipatory angst. People have been hospitalized, some placed on ventilators and over 9,700 Canadians died from the effects of COVID. Continual health warnings and the daily case counts have become numbing. According to the survey, 20 to 25 percent of Canadians experience "moderate or severe COVID-29-related mental health problems".

Indigenous groups, people living in poverty, some racialized groups and those with pre-existing mental health problems are seen to be particularly vulnerable to worsening mental health strain. Dr.Gordon Asmundson, one of the authors of the Royal Society paper, admonishes that roughly 15 percent may not be capable of adapting, and stand a good chance of becoming "functionally impaired" consequentially. He is only too aware that the country's mental health system pre-pandemic was stretched to its hilt.

Fear, sadness, grief, loneliness, frustration, irritability are all common responses and completely normal in view of the pandemic, states Dr.Allen Frances. He advises that psychotherapy, available now through virtual care, is able to assist people to cope with abnormal stressors. He draws the line, however, at the increase in the use of antidepressants. "This is terrible, but it's not as bad as being in the blitz in [wartime] London", he says.

Exercise when we need it most. (Unsplash)
"The increased rates of painful emotions in the general population do not necessarily mean an increase in rates of clinical mental disorder, and it doesn't mean you're going to have a chronic mental illness."
"I think we have to normalize this as the new normal -- the idea that we're going to face tremendous stressors from pandemics, and even more from climate change."
"And so people have to start thinking long term, not waiting, 'oh, I'll be OK', or the world will be OK next month, or even next year."
"People have to start planning their next several years in a way that doesn't have them constantly anxious and sad and regrettng what's been lost, but rather finds the most in each day under these new circumstances."
"Find things you enjoy the most, and fill your day with as many good minutes as possible. Find the people who matter the most to you and the things that matter the most to you, the things that make life worth living, most of them can be preserved even in -- a pandemic."
"So a rational person should be cautious and fearful for probably the next several years, especially if they are in high-risk groups."
Dr.Allen Frances, professor emeritus, former chair, department of psychiatry, Duke University