Clinical anxiety

As the coronavirus pandemic has swept through the United States, there has been a surge in the number of calls to mental health hotlines in New York and nationwide as people battle anxiety and depression.

By Saturday the US had officially logged 1,769,776 infections, far more than any other country, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The country also recorded 960 deaths on the same day, taking its total to 103,758 since the outbreak began.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York, or NAMI-NYC Metro, said the number of calls to its crisis helpline had risen 60 percent since mid-March.

“We expect that the number of New Yorkers who seek our aid will exponentially grow in the coming months due to COVID-19,” said Matt Kudish, executive director at NAMINYC Metro.

“With the uncertainty and social isolation of this global pandemic, our number one priority is ensuring that anyone who requires help, information or support, receives it.”

Mental Health America, or MHA, a national nonprofit that addresses the needs of those living with mental illness, said it had seen a 20 percent increase in the number of people who had taken a free screening test for anxiety between midFebruary and March compared with earlier this year.

“Just as individuals with preexisting physical illness are more likely to get physically ill from the coronavirus, people whose mental health is compromised are at greater risk of experiencing worsening mental illness as a result of the coronavirus — no matter what their mental illness may be,” MHA said on its website.

In a news conference last month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

asked people not to underestimate the trauma that this has created in regard to the strain COVID-19 has had on people’s mental health.

“It has been incredibly anxiety producing, traumatic, disturbing and we’ve felt and seen all along evidence that this is creating a significant mental health challenge for people.”

New York state launched the COVID-19 Emotional Support hotline in March with 6,000 mental health professionals. It received more than 8,000 calls in just five days.

The US Census Bureau said recently that a third of US citizens have signs of clinical anxiety and depression amid the pandemic.

The survey of 40,000 people in mid-May asked respondents questions such as “How often have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?”

It found 34.4 percent of adults who responded had symptoms of anxiety or depression from May 7 to May 12.

The survey also revealed that COVID-19 was affecting people’s mental health differently based on their race, gender, age, salary and location.

Black and Hispanic people surveyed were more likely than whites or Asians to feel anxious or depressed.

Feelings of depression were also higher among women, young adults and those with low education levels.

As states gradually begin to reopen, allowing people to leave their homes and even get back to work, the findings are set to be a part of a wider study to help inform federal and state agencies on the overall impact of COVID-19.

The Census Bureau and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this was to “expedite post-pandemic recovery”.