We'll be dealing with the crushing economic and political fallout of COVID for years if not decades, but of just as much concern is the severe mental effects of the pandemic:
As Americans head into a third year of pandemic living, therapists around the country are finding themselves on the front lines of a mental health crisis. Social workers, psychologists and counselors from every state say they can't keep up with an unrelenting demand for their services, and many must turn away patients — including children — who are desperate for support.
"All the therapists I know have experienced a demand for therapy that is like nothing they have experienced before," said Tom Lachiusa, a licensed clinical social worker in Longmeadow, Mass. "Every available time slot I can offer is filled."
The New York Times asked 1,320 mental health professionals to tell us how their patients were coping as pandemic restrictions eased. General anxiety and depression are the most common reasons patients seek support, but family and relationship issues also dominate therapy conversations. One in four providers said suicidal thoughts were among the top reasons clients were seeking therapy.
Can I just say...
Seriously.
What do we think is going to happen when we tell an entire nation of people, for two years, that they are at imminent risk of painful, horrible death from an easily spread respiratory virus... and that the only solution is to shut down everything they love, separate them from everyone they care about, force them into a hot, miserable face mask all day long, and never indicate when any of it is going to end?
Of course their mental health is going to collapse.
Even if all the pandemic insanity disappeared tomorrow, the mental health issue isn't going away anytime soon; it's likely here to stay for quite a while.
