Dealing with coronavirus is difficult. If your mental health is suffering, you’re not alone
This is incredibly hard.
As much as that has already been said, it’s worth repeating — and remembering.
It has been hard on me. It has been hard on my wife and kids. It has been hard on this community, the country and the world.
It almost certainly has been hard on you.
And it’s going to get even harder on everyone.
Over the course of a month, all of us have had our lives rearranged by the coronavirus — like a heavyweight boxer rearranges a face. Some of us have lost friends and loved ones. Many of us have lost jobs. Most have been forced to hastily reassess our lives, our immediate dreams and what the future holds.
Daily four-digit death counts. Careers, businesses and industries vanished. A bleak, paranoid existence, grinding through life in quarantine, privately grieving for lost school years, birthdays and ball games.
No real, firm answer about how long it will last. A stupid, inept federal response. Uncertainty, on repeat.
Are there reasons for hope? Silver linings? Breaks of human beauty in the storm?
Of course. Let’s try not to forget.
But it also feels important to acknowledge that if you’re struggling — or wake up some morning in the not-too-distant future struggling — there’s good reason.
The impact on our collective mental health will be one of the COVID-19 pandemic’s lasting ripples.
None of this is easy.
Last week during a teleconference held by the Joint Information Center at Camp Murray, Dr. Jurgen Unutzer, a psychiatrist and health services researcher at the University of Washington, and Kristen P. Lindgren, a UW professor and licensed clinical psychologist, attempted to put the mental health impact of COVID-19 into words.
To no great surprise, the experts said the pandemic and disruption are causing stress and anxiety for nearly everyone. The “longer this crisis wears on,” the more difficult it will get, Unutzer said, not that such a psychic effort was really necessary.
Some have already experienced “tremendous losses” and “a tremendous amount of grief,” Unutzer said, noting that “some … may struggle with post traumatic stress disorder.”
Tellingly, even when Unutzer identified three groups of people at particular risk, the effort to narrow the scope proved futile.
The “nearly 1 million Washingtonians who live with a mental health or substance use disorder” are vulnerable, Unutzer said. Dealing with the same fear and anxiety as everyone, many have now been cut off from families and crucial support systems.
At the same time, health care workers and first responders also are at risk, Unutzer said. While many are “used to taking care of very sick patients,” he noted, “this crisis can be overwhelming even for experienced clinicians.”
So who falls into the third group, according to the esteemed doctor?
“Every one of us,” Unutzer said.
“All of us living in the community right now are at risk. We’re all experiencing serious stressors and disruptions in our lives. We’re worried about getting sick ourselves. We might be worried about our family members, about our jobs, our finances,” Unutzer said.
“If that stress persists for too long, it puts all of us at risk for things like anxiety and depression, or perhaps worsening alcohol or substance use.”
As an overarching theme, the mental health experts did provide reasons for optimism.
As The Olympian’s James Drew reported, Unutzer and Lindgren said that while fear and anxiety are expected symptoms of the spreading illness and the social distancing measures, so far Washingtonians are displaying signature crisis-response resilience.
For most, the temporary reaction will subside, the experts suggested, and as things slowly improve, so too will the collective psyche.
Meanwhile, there are steps you can take to mitigate the impact. Looking out for yourself and others, limiting media exposure and, as Lindgren put it, being “thoughtful about basic well-being strategies — exercise, sleep, healthy eating,” can go a long way.
All of it is important, no doubt.
Still, amid the attempts at self care and self preservation, and amid the necessary doses of perspective and concern for others, it seems like taking a moment to make out what’s in front of us might serve as a good start.
Let’s call the situation like it is, and move on from there.
This is incredibly hard — on all of us.
If that’s how it feels, you’re not alone.
