Coronavirus: The possible long-term mental health impacts

We are a society shattered by causality, with views marred by the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. We are now in late 2021 and the toll on mental health is skyrocketing. Individuals that have been forced into isolation now are at a loss how to reconnect with others. Workers were forced out of work due to strict guidelines or now have spent an extreme amount of time stuck at home. The death of loved ones impacted families and the good, such as marriages also put on hold. We now have secondary pandemics with anxieties, depression, grief just to name a few are all on the rise even amongst those who have never experienced these before. This will no doubt tax the already alarmingly slim mental health resources over the next several years.

With the number of people experiencing mental health issues during this crisis increasing, and those already engaged with the mental health system requiring more support than usual. We are also more limited in our ability to access the services we need or do the things usually suggested to alleviate and manage these conditions. Both appointments and social interactions have moved into the online space in an attempt to fill the gaps, but this can sometimes serve to accentuate the physical disconnect we are already experiencing, access to social media- which we all know by now is a reflection of others highlights reels as opposed to real life. Makes us feel that we are the only ones having a hard time. Options for care and support are harder to access, and for a lot of people, the impersonal nature of talking to a face on a screen can be very alienating.

Although we are aware of the limitations of the access to the resources we are required to use during this time. The positive note is that we are all experience the same phenomena, the isolation the pandemic has brought about, and our desire to feel a part of a larger whole.