Lockdown and our mental health

By Alex P. Vidal

“We know how to treat depression, we know how to treat mental illness, and we have not had the political will in our country to make it happen.”—Rosalynn Carter

WE have been hearing a lot of complaints about “gutom” (nothing to eat) and “pigado na gid” (life is so hard) as a result of the months-long lockdown and the coronavirus-instigated enhanced social distancing from residents who believed the government’s social amelioration program (SAP) response wasn’t enough to sustain their day to day survival.

In a pandemic, SAP or any form of assistance from any Good Samaritan is viewed heavily as equivalent to a band aid, not surgery.

These are valid assertions especially that some people haven’t earned any income for nearly three months now while others have altogether lost their jobs.

While we are “all in this together” and hopeful things will normalize when the coronavirus pandemic is gone, empty stomachs and mounting bills can’t wait.

Creditors with low emotional quotients have joined the fray and added pressure to the psychological trauma and dwindling pockets.

These are some of the pandemic “side-events” that have been roiling down the country and nobody appears to have given them a serious attention.

 

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Since there is no timetable for the virus’ exit—if ever it will disappear soon—anxieties and frustrations grow in an alarming scale in many homes.

Even if the second tranche of SAP will arrive soon, it won’t guarantee that those in the economic skid row can immediately recuperate from wobbly legs.

What if the COVID-19 will continue to wreak havoc until the “ber” months, or even until next year?

What if the pandemic’s feared “second wave” will aggravate and empty the government’s coffer as forewarned by President Duterte?

Sadness and depression continue to deepen and prolong.

As a result, many Filipinos, shellshocked by the pandemic’s onslaught, have suffered both from alarming emotional and mental anguishes, aside from financial difficulties.

We have heard of some exasperated income earners committing suicide and even killing their families, and couples separating.

Domestic violence was reportedly on a rise but wasn’t given proper attention because the media and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been preoccupied with reports about COVID-19, the disheartening troubles in the checkpoints, and the inequalities and injustices in the SAP distributions.

 

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Even in the mighty United States, mental-health experts are especially worried about the ongoing economic devastation.

Research has reportedly established a strong link between economic upheaval and suicide and substance use.

A study of the Great Recession that began in late 2007 found that for every percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, there was about a 1.6 percent increase in the suicide rate, according to a Washington Post report.

Nearly half of Americans report the coronavirus crisis is harming their mental health, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

A federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress registered a more than 1,000 percent increase in April compared with the same time last year, added the Washington Post.

Last month, reports said, roughly 20,000 people texted the hotline, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Online therapy company Talkspace reported a 65 percent jump in clients since mid-February.

Text messages and transcribed therapy sessions collected anonymously by the company reportedly show coronavirus-related anxiety dominating patients’ concerns.

“People are really afraid,” Talkspace co-founder and CEO Oren Frank said. The increasing demand for services, he said, follows almost exactly the geographic march of the virus across the United States. “What’s shocking to me is how little leaders are talking about this. There are no White House briefings about it. There is no plan.”

One in five adults in the U.S. reportedly endure the consequences of mental illness each year. Yet less than half receive treatment, federal statistics show. As suicide rates have fallen around the world, the rate in the United States has reportedly climbed every year since 1999, increasing 33 percent in the past two decades.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)