May is Mental Health Awareness Month and each week Call to Mind will be highlighting an area of mental health focus to bring visibility and spark conversation because we think it’s #TimeToTalk about….
Pandemic Check-in
“How are you, really?”
Last May, we asked you this just at the beginning of the global coronavirus pandemic we’re still living through. We had no idea what hardship COVID-19 had in store for us - that we would grieve half a million Americans killed by this new disease, our lives would be disrupted by shutdown measures, and the way politics and racial reconings would become tangled in our survival experience. It was a time of tremendous uncertainty and anxiety that triggered a global mental health crisis that we may be coping with for a while.
Now, we still want to know, how ARE you? As we recognize Mental Health Month in 2021. We’re focusing on the mental health impacts that the last year is having on our lives.
If you’ve been having a hard time, you are not at all alone. Mental health experts, including the American Psychological Association, acknowledge stress is a secondary pandemic health crisis. Public health leaders are warning that people - particularly essential workers, parents, and people of color - may be coping with the mental health impacts of the pandemic long after COVID-19 stops spreading.
As National Institute of Mental Health Director Joshua A. Gordon conveyed in his one-year reflection of the COVID 19 related mental health crisis:
“According to one CDC report [...] 31% of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 13% reported having started or increased substance use, 26% reported stress-related symptoms, and 11% reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past 30 days. These numbers are nearly double the rates we would have expected before the pandemic.”
About two-thirds of Americans said they were feeling some symptoms of mental illness because of the pandemic, according to a Pew Research Center report this spring. More than one in five adults reported experiencing high levels of psychological distress. Young people, particularly singles, women, and people with lower income are reporting the highest levels of distress.
Take care of yourself. Reach out to others. Connect with help when you need it. We’re going to get through this together. If you are struggling with your well-being, or know someone who is, check out the data-informed resources we gathered for our Coping with Coronavirus project.
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