The summer heat has arrived and despite holding our collective breath, the coronavirus has not miraculously disappeared. In persevering through a shutdown, a three-phase reopening, and now an emergency ordinance to limit sidewalk traffic, we have learned that we are resilient — but the cracks are starting to show in our population’s mental health.
In fact, nearly 30 percent of Americans are experiencing symptoms of clinical depression as of late July, compared to 6.6 percent last year based on a recent National Center for Health Statistics and Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. The numbers for anxiety closely mirror with 36 percent compared to 8.2 percent last year. The number of online mental health screenings has increased 400 percent. Perhaps the most alarming — albeit uncited — statistic comes from CDC director Robert Redfield, who stated that there have been far greater suicides and drug overdoses than COVID deaths among young people since the lockdown.
I have experienced this upward trend firsthand. There has been a doubling of old and new patients coming into the clinic for ketamine infusions, a relatively new FDA-approved modality used for treatment of depression and anxiety. The most commonly cited reasons I hear include: fear of getting sick, grief from sick loved ones, financial distress, loss of job, loss of community, home-life stress, and reduced access to healthcare. There is also something I call “COVID fatigue”, which is over-saturation of COVID coverage in the news and social media and includes the accompanying stress of teasing out fact from fiction. I realize the irony as I contribute another COVID article to the milieu.
How do you know if you are having depressive symptoms? The challenge is that depression and anxiety are on a spectrum, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint if it’s just a “bad day” or something more insidious. However, if feelings such as persistent sadness, emptiness, irritability, guilt, pessimism and emotional distancing occur for weeks and adversely affect sleep, appetite and work, then you may be dealing with pandemic-induced depression or anxiety.
There are measures you can take if you suspect you are depressed or anxious. If the symptoms are severe and debilitating, then contact your mental health professional. If suicidal, check yourself in to the hospital or at the very least call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HELLO to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.
Check out some additional preventative measures by reading rest of the article written by Dr. George Hwang on arl.com by clicking here.