The Effects on Mental Health Due To COVID-19 (Essay Example)

In December 2019, in Wuhan China, the Coronavirus pandemic got its start. Since then, this virus has taken over the world and has killed 6.5 million people (about twice the population of Nevada). For those lucky enough to survive this disease, or avoid it all together, it has had ramifications associated with it. One of those problems being the mental health of the world population. COVID-19 has affected the mental health of a lot of people in many ways; including increased time at home leading to depression, people fearing and not receiving medical help due to low resources and creating a challenge for those in need to take advantage of help centers.  

In general, communication with mental health is a tough subject. Talking about mental health is often seen as distasteful and certainly disagreeable to the public eye. Now take those problems, that are hard to begin with, and add the lack of stronger connections, the government forcing people to stay inside their house, and the lack of body language due to social distancing one could get the recipe for even bigger problems. “According to research, more than 90% of human communication consists of body language. When you see the way that the person you are talking to reacts, you are able to better understand how they are feeling. One of the benefits of face to face communication is the live feedback translated through the body language and facial expressions” (“5”). Even before COVID-19, face-to-face communication was crucial in day-to-day life, but now that people are not getting these needed connections, mental health is decreasing and mental disorders such as depression are increasing. “Published in the journal the Lancet Regional Health – Americas, the study found that 32.8% of U.S. adults experienced elevated depressive symptoms in 2021, compared to 27.8% of adults in the early months of the pandemic in 2020, and 8.5% before the pandemic” (“Depression”). Depression rates have almost tripled since before the pandemic due to the stressors that come with constantly staying at home, but with the fact that people were not able to have the crucial face-to-face interaction needed, this problem is not going away any time soon. 

People were overworked and underpaid during the pandemic. This was due to the lack of employees, lack of supplies, and the lack of being able to even come to their jobs. Because of a lack of everything, people decided to just do things themselves or just not go through the needed proper channels. One example of this is that pregnant women wanted to miscarry at home instead of going to the hospital. “Compared to women who maintain viable pregnancies, women who miscarry have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress symptoms... During the pandemic, more may opt to miscarry at home due to wanting to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure in a medical setting” (Almeida et al.). Having a miscarriage, even in a medical setting, is scary, but at home it is worse. Medical help should not be a fearful thing, but unfortunately COVID-19 made it that way.  

Due to the lack of supplies and more people staying at home, stress was one of the main problems related to an increase in mental health. But because of lack of jobs people were not even able to receive the help they desperately needed. Stress is almost always present in day-to-day life, but too much can cause more harm than good. As Mayo Clinic has stated, “Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life.” But too much stress for too long is not good for the body. “Long-term stress increases the risk of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression” (“Stress”). Now that the risk for developing a mental health disorder has increased, the help centers needed have not met the needs of people or have even decreased. There have always been help lines such as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline that are open 24/7, but the local clinics and other practices like those are closing their doors due to the pandemic.  

COVID-19 disastrously invaded every aspect of the world by causing a rise in mental health disorders, depleting resources, and the lack of needed assets for the help in to combat these issues. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtingly changed the way the world was viewed, and how it was operated. Now that vaccines and other measures have been taken, hope for change in the right way is predicted by many.  

Work Cited  

“Depression Rates Tripled and Symptoms Intensified during First Year of COVID-19.” Brown University, 30 Mar. 2022, brown.edu/news/2021-10-05/pandemic-depression. 

“5 Benefits of Face-to-Face Communication.” 25 June 2022, valueprop.com/blog/5-benefits-face-face-communication. 

Almeida, M., Shrestha, A., Stojanac, D. et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mm   women’s mental health. Arch Womens Ment Health 23, 741–748 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-020-01092-2 

Mayo Clinic Staff. “COVID-19: How to Manage Your Mental Health during the Pandemic.” Mayo Clinic, 23 Nov. 2021, mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/mental-health-covid-19/art-20482731. 

“Stress.” CAMH, camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/stress#:~:text=When%20stress%20becomes%20overwhelming%20and,complaints%20such%20as%20muscle%20tension. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.