Little is known about mental or emotional illnesses and little is being done to treat them. Above all, they are little recognized and in many cases stigmatized. It is more common to hear about the flu than to say openly that a person is being treated for depression or schizophrenia.
And although we have made progress in accepting these conditions in recent decades, there is still a long way to go before we can fully help those who suffer from them.
As in all cases, there is a wide spectrum of mental health illnesses; some that require therapy and others where psychiatric and medical diagnosis are essential. But in general, people know so little about it that it usually takes a long time to seek support and for the most complex situations to obtain resources that help to attend to time.
Therefore, it is important to point out that if there were more information on the early detection of these diseases, their effects and damage could be considerably reduced in society, since the improvements apply both to the person and to those around him.
Unfortunately, mental health has not been considered a priority in our country. At the national level, public health authorities have neglected the procurement of these diseases. And if the scenario was critical from before, due to the health contingency of COVID-19, this situation was further complicated, however it has also served to make this problem visible.
For example, in the article published in “The Lancet Regional Health” titled “Strengthening Mental Health Responses to COVID-19 in the Americas: Health Policy Analysis and Recommendations” by Amy Tausch, Renato Oliveira, Carmen Martínez, Anselm JM Hennis, Jarbas Barbosa, and Claudina Cayetano, it was mentioned that one in four people worldwide will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime due to the pandemic.
But, even worse, is knowing that because of this more than three million people a year will die as a result of harmful use of alcohol and at least almost a million will lose their lives by suicide. This is the size of the problem that is being faced worldwide.
Although that is not all, since it was also estimated in that article that by the year 2030, mental health will cost the world economy an approximate of 16 billion dollars.
That without also counting the neurological damage that the same COVID-19 infection generated in people who have tested positive. Well, the same study suggests that infected and recovering people are experiencing a greater number of mental health problems.
Even in people with no prior psychiatric history, a COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with a higher incidence of a first psychiatric diagnosis within 14 to 90 days, compared with six other health events. It is worth mentioning that the incidence rates were higher for anxiety disorders, insomnia and dementia.
Also, the estimated incidence of a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis in the following six months after COVID-19 infection was 33.62%, with 12.84% receiving their first such diagnosis.
So what is happening to people’s mental health in a pandemic? This state of crisis in which we live, with widespread closures in several countries, which are known to already cause problems of anxiety and depression and are causing an increase in the consumption of alcohol, drugs and incitement to suicidal thoughts.