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How does COVID-19 affect mental health? Experts speak with certainty about the increase in the number of mental disorders.
While there are not so many studies and scientific publications on this topic, most of them are published in English-language sources. What do doctors, neuroscientists, psychologists and other specialists write about?
Several factors are already contributing to the decline in the mental health of many people. Let’s try to divide them into two groups.
The first group of factors concerns the general background associated with the pandemic, the economic and social life of people. The second relates directly to the virus and its effect on the human body.
1. Pandemic and society
Threat to the survival of the species
It is in this vein that the current situation can be viewed, and the reasons are quite obvious.
- A new virus can dramatically affect health and life.
- COVID-19 can undermine the health or cause death of family members, loved ones.
- Due to the pandemic, people are losing and will continue to lose their jobs, income, and living standards are declining.
- Every member of the human race is potentially dangerous. At the same time, it is impossible to determine by external signs whether he is sick.
Everyone must wear masks — this is a necessary measure. But the closed faces of those around us just remind us that any of them can be the spreader of the virus.
High voltage zone
Anxiety. We know that there is a danger, but it is not defined. The situation is still unpredictable. There are no clear prospects for getting out of it yet. All this creates anxiety in us.
Retraumatization. In such an environment, old traumas are activated in many people, as noted by clinical psychologist, trauma therapy expert and author of the method of integrative somatic psychology Raja Selvam. Trauma associated with the threat of life and loss (medical injuries, the experience of victims of violence, hunger, trauma of broken attachment, and others) remind of themselves. Moreover, the pandemic situation is also a trigger for generational and collective traumas, for example, those associated with wars and famines. Of course, in Russia, the echoes of large-scale historical disasters are still strong — one has only to remember how those who remember the nineties ran to buy buckwheat in the spring.
Information pressure. The pandemic creates a tense general background in which we “cook” every day. Mass media and social media significantly increase general anxiety and stress.
Lack of socialization. Due to the need for isolation, we limit physical contact, someone almost lost contact — while this is an important human need. The inability to remain in emotional contact with a sufficiently wide range of people increases stress.
somatic manifestations. General nervousness is accompanied by dysregulation at the physical level, bodily manifestations occur, chronic diseases are often exacerbated against the background of stress.
PTSD on the background of anxiety
So, the virus carries a mortal danger, and the background stress is too strong, and all together seriously affects the state of the psyche. Therefore, PTSD can become a likely consequence of a pandemic, both in those who have been ill, and in their relatives, in medical and social workers, in those who simply watch what is happening. We tend to think that time heals. But even the end of the pandemic will not mean that everything is over.1.
In people with receptive psyches, stress already triggers brain processes that cause traumatic memories to suddenly resurface and impair mental health. Such «flashbacks» and a number of other manifestations make up the clinical picture of PTSD.
In our country, another term is also used: “social stress disorder” (SSR). What is the difference? War survivors may develop post-traumatic stress disorder. But when our psyche is affected by large social changes (like those that we experienced in the nineties), we can talk about social stress disorder. Its manifestations are similar to PTSD, and it develops simultaneously in a large group of people2.
The impact of the virus on the central nervous system and brain is not yet well understood. However, data already suggests that there are mental health problems associated with COVID-19.
Those who recovered from the coronavirus showed not only disorders of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. In some cases, there were psychoses associated with circulatory disorders — the brain ceased to receive the necessary «nutrition». Many noted mood swings, the appearance of depressive or anxiety episodes.
From this point of view, self-observations of psychologists are interesting. Some of them shared stories about the sensations that arose during the illness.
“Consciousness was as if immersed in a spacesuit”
“It started with symptoms of SARS, in a mild form. Then fear came, very strange: I could watch a comedy series, laugh — and suddenly it became scary, this fear came from somewhere inside. Probably due to the lack of oxygen caused by the virus.
Then weakness set in, I didn’t want to and it was even difficult to think, my thoughts were blurry — it was impossible to concentrate, I felt like in a vacuum. Perception changed, smells and taste disappeared, at some moments there was a feeling of derealization (when you exist, as if you exist separately from the body). I wanted to sleep a lot and not think about anything.
The virus surprised me with how tangibly it affects mental processes. I felt anxiety, lingering fear, absent-mindedness
This went on for three days. Then the mood improved, the feeling of reality returned. Now the situation is changing in waves. It happens for 2 days everything is fine, then 1 day again apathy, depression, fear. And then again like nothing. And at night — insomnia, ”says Lilia Stepanova, a neuropsychologist.
“Things went relatively easy for us, but the virus surprised me with how tangibly it affects mental processes. While COVID-19 attacked my cells, my consciousness was as if immersed in a spacesuit. I felt anxiety, lingering fear, absent-mindedness. And to some extent, this still holds true.
My close and recovering clients note another “side effect”: insomnia, depression, vegetative disorders, a clear decrease in cognitive functions,” says psychologist Lev Grigench.
Why is this happening?
People are scared by the very fact of the pandemic, global changes and social restrictions. When a severe form of the disease is added to this, a person experiences a direct threat to life, and the virus causes organic changes, there is a possibility of neuropsychiatric pathologies.
For example, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, various psychoses, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, writes Alexei Verkhratsky, a neurophysiologist and professor at the University of Manchester, in an article co-authored with Italian colleagues.
Sound menacing? In fact, this does not mean at all that it is COVID-19 that poses some particular threat to the psyche. These are the possible consequences of the influence of many respiratory viruses on the body, the central nervous system. Scientists began to think about the role of influenza in the development of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia at the beginning of the 1918th century, after the Spanish flu pandemic in 1920-XNUMX.
Turning to a specialist is not an indicator of weakness, but a manifestation of responsibility to yourself and loved ones
“Those who have experienced moderate to severe clinical COVID-19 are at increased risk for certain mental health problems. But, in fact, any systemic pathology (that is, pneumonia, trauma, sepsis, intestinal pathologies, and others) can lead to a rapid increase in neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment, especially in the elderly,” says Professor Verkhratsky.
We do not lose optimism
So, the general disturbing background and social restrictions definitely affect the psyche — this is important to consider. And the virus itself (like many other diseases) can worsen a person’s mental state. But this does not mean that a pandemic of psychosis awaits us.
The conclusion is obvious: even those who have not encountered mental problems before should be more attentive to their condition. Turning to a specialist is not an indicator of weakness, but a manifestation of responsibility to yourself and loved ones.
How much longer do we live in anxiety? According to the expert, everything is not as bad as it might seem. “We have already made tremendous progress in clinical treatment, and we already have a vaccine, which would have been impossible even 50 years ago. Please, no pessimism. We will overcome this.»
1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-020-00949-5
2 https://www.rmj.ru/articles/psikhiatriya/Koronavirusnyy_sindrom_profilaktika_psihotravmy_vyzvannoy_COVID-19/#ixzz6fkmUDPaW