Nine out of 10 adults said ​they believed that there is a mental health crisis in the US today.

By Sarah LaFon Buck

June 22, 2023

Credit- Iso-Form LLC

An artistic rendition of a COVID-19 virus particle

____________________________________________________________________________

One of the biggest global crises in this generation was COVID-19. It had severe and long-lasting effects on the economy, society, and many people’s lives. Many people lost their jobs and required financial help, and many businesses went bankrupt. 

As of June 21, 2023, more than 6.9 million people have died from COVID. The pandemic has led to a mental health epidemic. According to Mental Health America, in 2019-20, 20.78% of adults were experiencing mental illness, equivalent to 50 million people in America. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated numerous social stressors that we know can increase the risk of both substance use and mental illness,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

One cause of this was unemployment. During COVID, many people lost their jobs. When business closures and restrictions happened, unemployment peaked at 23 million in April 2020. Additionally, many people lost loved ones and were experiencing grief alone. During Covid, many adults reported they felt symptoms of anxiety and depression, peaking at 39.35% of adults in Feb. 2021, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). 

“As someone who likes to be sociable, it was a challenging time for me,” said Joe Dennis, a professor at Piedmont University. “From being around students all day to being stuck in my home staring at a screen — I definitely struggled with my mental health.

Dennis was not alone. Many people felt isolated and lonely in quarantine because they could not see their friends and family for a long time. Azi Daw, a rising high school student from Virginia, said the pandemic was especially difficult for her since it exacerbated previous health conditions already impacting her family.

“The quarantine, the isolation — I could not really handle it anymore,” she said, adding that she’s thankful she had strong support systems in place with her family to help her get through her struggles. “Going to sleep at night was really hard for me. I just couldn’t slow my brain down. My mind was always racing.” 

Although the KFF showed mental health struggles dropped to 31.5% in Feb. 2022, it has most recently gone up to 32.3% in Feb. 2023. As more people are struggling, getting help has become much harder. Many people could not afford it or were scared to seek help. 

“I myself did not go to the clinic for therapy for an entire year partly because of this fear,” said Esenam Abra Drah in an article published by the World Health Organization in June 2022. 

Drah is from Ghanda and suffers from bipolar disorder, and says that Covid affected her and many of her friends. “I have many friends who had relapses in their mental health because of the increased fear and panic. It was almost as if fear was contagious.” 

Health care workers especially experienced an increase in mental health concerns. There was a lot of fear around the hospital because of how many people had Covid. With increasing workloads and exposure to infected patients, many health care workers became much more stressed during the pandemic. 

A Sept. 2020 survey conducted by MHA found that 93% of healthcare workers were experiencing stress. 76% were worried about exposing their children to COVID-19, and 48.61% were stressed from the increased workload from Covid. 

As society still suffers from the remnants of the pandemic, it’s important to prioritize one’s mental health. “The impact of COVID-19 on mental health cannot be underestimated,” Esenam said. “It cannot be made light of.”