(Unprecedented during the unprecedented)
As such mental disorders were a growing pandemic, but now add it to another pandemic! Sorry to say this but it’s a reality. Mental disorders were on the rise even pre-Corona. But now with all the negativity building due to increasing number of deaths every day, increased unemployment everyday, shortage of essential supplies, deficiencies in necessities and much more, mental disorders have gone up exponentially! Millions of people are in pain, frustration, agony while being locked up in their homes. Millions have no rent to pay, scared to get evicted! Millions of them have no plan about how to get provide food and other essentials to their family! Even with re-opening underway, businesses might take a significant time to come back to normalcy and with that, common men and women might hopefully find some respite! These are all the factors that worsen the mental disorders epidemic!
Even people who didn’t have any history of mental disorders are getting affected somehow. If this is an overstatement, read this from the Washington post:
“The suicides of two New York health-care workers highlight the risks, especially to those combating the pandemic. Lorna Breen, a top New York emergency room doctor, had spent weeks contending with coronavirus patients flooding her hospital and sometimes dying before they could be removed from ambulances. She had no history of mental illness, her relatives have said in interviews, but struggled increasingly with the emotional weight of the outbreak before she died. Days later, reports emerged that a Bronx emergency medical technician also killed himself.”
An alarming and informative article from Washington post is an eye-opener.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/04/mental-health-coronavirus/?outputType=amp
Some key points from the above article:
“Three months into the coronavirus pandemic, the country is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma.
Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental-health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.
Just as the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus caught hospitals unprepared, the United States’ mental-health system — vastly underfunded, fragmented and difficult to access before the pandemic — is even less prepared to handle this coming surge.”
“That’s what is keeping me up at night,” said Susan Borja, who leads the traumatic stress research program at the National Institute of Mental Health. “I worry about the people the system just won’t absorb or won’t reach. I worry about the suffering that’s going to go untreated on such a large scale.”
“People are really afraid,” Talkspace co-founder and CEO Oren Frank said. The increasing demand for services, he said, follows almost exactly the geographic march of the virus across the United States. “What’s shocking to me is how little leaders are talking about this. There are no White House briefings about it. There is no plan.”
Another factual article regarding this ever growing epidemic worsening during COVID-19:
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200508/mental-health-emerging-crisis-of-covid-pandemic
Still stigmatized, undiagnosed …
With COVID-19, access to healthcare has been a bit restricted although more and more practices have adapted and started telemedicine. Our job as citizens, as health care providers and as common men and women, is to identify mental disorders in ourselves, societies, families and recognize them as a problem. Our job is to eradicate the stigma which has been around mental disorders for decades and centuries. Our job is to help these people find care and start treatment right away.
Just like we have been trying hard to find a cure and vaccines for Corona virus, it’s so important to work towards this ever growing epidemic of Mental disorders. If not, mental disorders will not not only ruin the individuals and their families, but will also continue to daunt our communities and result in unfortunate incidents. People with mental disorders deserve as much attention as patients suffering from any other health disorder.
Over the Counter 