‘You can’t just turn it off’
for my mental health, after I go a few blocks I get that feeling in my stomach that makes me start feeling panicky,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, am I going to panic? Should I go home, should I keep pushing, should I keep going?’ ”
Nearly half of American adults reported that their mental health has been negatively affected due to worry and stress over the virus, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
The sudden shuttering of everyday activities earlier in the pandemic response made it impossible for some to use the coping skills they had spent so long creating.
Bukeavich said when the pandemic began she thought she would be able to handle the mental health challenges because of her years in therapy. But as time wore on she found the experience has exacerbated her preexisting conditions.
“I know how to play those mental games with myself to calm myself down when I’m feeling anxious and so on,” Bukeavich said, “But what I didn’t really anticipate was the fact that literally every support system that I have that’s outside of myself would fall away.”
For Gabe Howard, a mental health advocate and author from Ohio who has struggled with bipolar disorder since 2003, along with anxiety and depression, the pandemic eliminated all his usual coping mechanisms.
“(It’s) really frustrating because these coping skills took months, if not years, to come up with,” Howard said. “And now within a short period of time, I’m asked to make new coping skills, and it just doesn’t work that way.
“You can’t just turn it off.” Howard said he worries about the effects the coronavirus has on suicide care. He’s concerned about the lack of support someone might get because some hospitals only allow the person seeking treatment to be in the emergency room. There’s also a risk of exposure to the virus while waiting with a friend or loved one, he said.
“Am I willing to sit in the emergency room with my friend for … however long it takes, and then risk carrying the potential coronavirus back to my loved ones or getting it myself?” Howard said. “That changes the situation dramatically about how much care or support you’re willing to offer that person.”
The impact the pandemic has on suicide rates won’t be known for some time, possibly years, according to an American Psychological Association report in June. However, consequences of