Mental Health Challenges

So many things have changed with COVID and the global pandemic. It has been the elephant in the room that we have lived with for over a year now. During this past year, so many of us have had days where we felt down and depressed.  While there are many efforts to remove the stigma about behavioral health issues, it is still not a truly open discussion yet among peers. Even though we ask people around us “How are you today?” the answer is rarely anything like “I had a great meeting with my therapist and we figured out that I needed a higher dose of my antidepressants.”

The year of 2020 was at best challenging.  It separated us from friends, family, colleagues, and from those that we saw at social functions. It tested us in ways many of us have never been before.  Many of us learned that we could do work remotely as well as we could in a cubical.  We spent more time supporting our children in their studies, and less time in the gym. For so very many of us our lives didn’t look remotely like the life we’d led in 2019.  Going to the grocery or the pharmacy was truly an outing “as needed only” basis.  Our elected officials closed malls, schools, courthouses, and our beloved restaurants. We did more dishes in 2020 than we have done in the previous three years!

I’ve talked with a couple of the staff here about how we thought we were handling these differences in our lives during the pandemic pretty well.  We all had plenty of work to keep us busy, we were safely going out once or twice a month to the grocery store, and, for the most part, had chosen to get take-out from our favorite restaurants instead of dining inside. For the holidays, we modified our plans and got together with only immediate family members, and wore masks in our relative’s homes. Most of us sent only social media greetings to our friends and distant family members. We did our best to keep ourselves and our communities safe.

What we didn’t realize until just recently, is that we weren’t handling it.  We felt depressed; we were pretending to be OK.  We were depressed, and sad, and withdrawn.  Some of us are dealing with aging parents, and have the added stress of caring for them. When you add those responsibilities to an already busy life, it is easy to overload your brain to the point that your mind gets scattered it becomes self-sabotaging. Focusing on tasks become impossible.  Things that we previously looked forward to often held no interest or appeal. Not finding any joy in anything makes us stop and take a hard look at what is going on inside ourselves. Several of us sought out therapy for the first time; others increased our depression and anxiety meds.  At least one of us sent their children to therapy for the first time and added a daily regimen of sleep agents for their children.

Because I have a good colleague, I was able to share my grief and daily challenges. We talked about what I was feeling, and my lack of motivation.  It was cathartic to share my burden, truly being honest about my struggles. To my surprise, my colleague that I thought had their life in control expressed similar issues. It was after this conversation that I knew I wasn’t alone. Annually, 264 million people worldwide are affected by depression.  Each year, 1 in 5 US Adults experience a mental illness.  These statistics are recognized during a “traditional year”.  I can’t imagine how many more American’s have been impacted during the pandemic.   

Reaching out to my family practitioner for a prescription and further discussion was the first step.  Other steps include tools most of us have easy access to: exercising at home – yoga and stretching, blog posts focusing on mental health and wellness, as well as on reducing the stigma for those who are not as quick to discuss how they might be feeling, and thankfully, telehealth access to care.

We share all of this to say that if you, or someone you love, respect, and appreciate may be experiencing similar challenges. Don’t be afraid to check on your friends and loved ones.  Ask your colleagues how they are faring with the pandemic and all of the myriad of unfamiliar things we have lived with this past year. The more we talk about it, the less stigma there is, and there is nothing more rewarding than giving those you care about a safe space to talk about what might be ailing them.

If you or someone you know has been experiencing depression, or another mental health challenge, here are some resources to check out:

Talk Space https://www.talkspace.com/  – 24/7 virtual care

Ericka’s Lighthouse https://www.erikaslighthouse.org/blog/  – teenage depression

HeadsUpGuys   https://headsupguys.org/you-are-not-alone/  —male depression and reducing stigma.

With much respect and best regards, we wish you all a significantly better 2021, and good mental health!

Deena Dodd, UMTRC Coordinator