The COVID pandemic is ravaging the entire world. Some have contracted the virus, others have seen their businesses in danger, but there are other more silent victims who make up a large number of those indirectly affected by the coronavirus. This is the case of people whose mental health has been diminished due to the pandemic. There are many mental problems that have arisen as a result of COVID19 and below we are going to name some of the most important ones.
Stress caused by COVID19
If there is one sector that has been shaken by stress during the pandemic, it is healthcare. It is clear that the situation that health personnel are experiencing as a result of the public health problem caused by COVID can be classified as chronic stress, with probable supervening episodes of acute stress. This makes the situation potentially very damaging for the emotional balance of health personnel.
From the WHO website (1) they recommend some tips to reduce stress such as: stop, breathe and reflect; connect with other people; maintain a healthy routine; be kind to yourself and others and ask for help if you need it.
Anxiety and COVID
If there is something clear, it is that we live in difficult times and it is that isolation, illness and economic instability are affecting our mental health and causing anxiety to make an appearance. If you want to identify if you are suffering from anxiety due to the pandemic, you can pay attention to the following signs, as indicated on the El Confidencial website (2):
- poor sleep.
- Focus on bad news.
- Loss of interest and pleasure.
- Impotence or paralyzing anxiety.
- Thought of suicide.
Trouble sleeping and COVID
Already known as “coronasomnia” or “Covidsomnia”, insomnia caused by COVID19 is a phenomenon that affects everyone when they experience insomnia with the stress of life during COVID19. In 2020, the word insomnia was searched on Google more than ever and there are countries where insomnia rates have increased considerably. For example, in China they increased from 14.6% to 20% during the strictest confinement. In the UK, for example, a study conducted by the University of Southampton in August 2020, the number of people experiencing insomnia increased from 1 in 6 to 1 in 4.
Depression
Depression is another of the most common mental health problems stemming from COVID. A study carried out by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (3) has revealed, for example, that 52.4% of a sample of 3,900 people who had passed COVID-19 had moderate or severe symptoms of depressive disorder.
Relationship problems due to COVID
Another of the things that COVID19 has affected the most is relationships, both family and couple. In the field of couples, where confinement was a turning point for many couples around the world since they have spent too much time together, which caused divorce applications to multiply in many countries after confinement.
Concern for family and friends
Also, the pandemic is making us worry much more about family and friends. This has caused us to avoid the contacts we used to have. That is to say, the visits and meetings have spread out (or have even disappeared) and this has caused a spectacular boom in video calls and phone calls, something that caused fears that the Internet would end up saturated.
(1): https://www.who.int/es/campaigns/connecting-the-world-to-combat-coronavirus/healthyathome/healthyathome—mental-health
(2): https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2020-05-12/signos-ansiedad-grave-covid-19-soluciones_2582539/
(3): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2777421?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=031221
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