With America in turmoil, mental health crisis looms
The science is screaming: Americans are in turmoil.
More than 80% of U.S. adults view the nation’s future as a significant source of stress, according to a report Thursday from the American Psychological Association. Americans are the unhappiest they have been in 50 years, according to a COVID Response Tracking Study released Monday. And a survey published this month in the medical journal JAMA found three times as many U.S. adults reporting symptoms of serious psychological distress in April as they did two years earlier.
The studies were conducted to better understand how Americans are coping during this unprecedented period, with millions sickened and more than 100,000 dead in a global pandemic, antiracism protests gripping the country and an economy in tatters after its longest expansion in history.
America is a nation unmoored, and experts said for many people, the negative mental health impacts will outlast the current crises. Research suggests the extreme stress triggered by these events might even lead to longer-term psychiatric disorders.
The nation must prepare, experts said, for the mental health crisis that looms next.
“We are facing a culmination of crises unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes – in coronavirus, economic turmoil and racism,” said Jaime Diaz-Granados, deputy chief executive officer and acting chief scientific officer at the
American Psychological Association.
“Each of these crises are taking a heavy psychological toll on Americans and particularly our African American citizens and other people of color. The health consequences could be dire. As we look toward the future, we need to consider the long-term implications of the collective trauma.”
More than 70% of Americans in the APA report said this is the lowest point in the nation’s history they can remember.
“These events absolutely will, for a large segment of our population, have long-term mental health consequences, including leading to diagnosable conditions,” said Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the APA.
Wright said the pandemic has destigmatized some mental health issues. People who never struggled with anxiety or isolation pre-COVID now have greater empathy for those who did.
Wright said she wishes there were a mental health equivalent to Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became America’s rock during the pandemic – someone who can talk candidly and authoritatively about mental health issues.
“There’s just sort of the pandemic within the pandemic now,” she said. “There’s stress around getting sick or your family getting sick. There’s the economic piece. It’s the national rhetoric around systemic racism. Stress related to leadership. It reminds us of all the things that are out of our control, so it’s imperative we try to focus on the things in our control so that we can try to maintain some of our emotional health.”
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