COVID recovery can cloak hidden pain
Whether recovering from the common cold, a stomach flu or a minor injury, there is a point where you start to feel like yourself. Your throat is not as sore. You can eat solid food again. That limp is not as bad. We don’t really know, however, what it will be like to heal from the ancillary effects of COVID-19. Nothing should stop us from cautiously celebrating a return to socializing, but there is a lot of trauma out there.
At the very beginning of this crisis, domestic violence advocates were canaries in the coal mine, warning about families that were already at risk being quarantined.
Many adults coped with daily anxiety over the likes of paying bills after losing income. Parents were forced to wear even more hats than usual as they juggled work with overseeing virtual education for their kids.
The light at the end of the tunnel is finally glowing bright for the first time since we entered the darkness in March 2020. But we need to carefully assess bruises suffered during this treacherous ride.
Many are not visible. Dr. Heather Machen, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Stamford Health, points to the strain of the past 15 months resulting in a rise in suicide attempts and mental health issues among youth.
A report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among 12- to 17-year-old girls were more than 50 percent higher between Feb. 21 and March 20 than they were during the same period in the previous calendar cycle.
Note the jarring difference in the numbers between genders. For boys of that age, emergency visits in the same period rose by 3.7 percent.
Keep in mind that these are only numbers related to ED visits during a time when many people avoided crowded hospitals.
Teenagers in the last year were deprived of activities we associate with this special time of life: tight bonds with friends, sports and club activities, proms and graduations.
Numbers can never tell the whole story. But the people who work in the field of mental health are reliably noticing more cases of youths expressing suicidal thoughts.
Dr. Andre Newfield, chairman of psychiatry for St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Services, says “the kids are overflowing in the emergency department.”
Sandy Hook Promise coFounder Mark Barden writes that the agency’s Anonymous Reporting System’s National Crisis Center has experienced a spike in reports of depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.
It’s never been easy to be a teenager — or a parent. Hopefully, the months to come will deliver some stability. But even as we remove masks and embrace one another again, our work is not done. There is a panic button. Call 211 from anywhere in Connecticut for help if you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts.
COVID is fading, but we can still save lives by being vigilant.
The light at the end of the tunnel is finally glowing bright for the first time since we entered the darkness in March 2020. But we need to carefully assess bruises suffered during this treacherous ride.