How To Manage Your Mental Health During The Pandemic?
The rate of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among America’s youth was at epidemic proportions before COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, over 20% of America’s college students suffered from a mental health disorder.
This is deeply understandable considering that young people, particularly those in high school and college, are at the cusp of adulthood. This time of life is as uncertain as it is exciting. Over the past decade, we’ve seen mental health diagnoses increase amongst youth of all ages…but COVID-19 has led a two-pronged assault on this vulnerable population.
First of all, the natural uncertainty felt by these students (what am I going to do in life?) has been multiplied many times over by COVID-19 (with this going on in the world/nation/economy…how am I going to do anything?). Second, the pandemic has significantly complicated access to mental health resources for students, particularly with the closing of many campuses last spring and general confusion around returning to campus this fall. Approximately 60% of college students reported that the world pandemic has made their access to support systems and resources more difficult.
Moreover, colleges and high schools are going virtual. The parents of nearly 3 in 10 students report that virtual, distance learning is negatively impacting their child’s health. Equally disturbing, 61% of teens report feelings of increased loneliness due to the changes in their school schedule. Not to mention the incredible stress of functioning as a full-time working parent and child’s educational supervisor is impacting the mental health of parents and the family as a whole.
Appropriate Care for Stress Even After the Pandemic
The good news is: better days are coming and help is on the way. At Chicago Rehab Center, we have the tools necessary to heal you or your loved one’s emotional state during this trying time. Through a combination of holistic, clinical, medical, and extended-care practices, our teams take an integrated approach to every patient’s mental health situation. Hope may be hard to embrace these days, but at CRC we make it that much easier to heal and live a full life…no matter what’s going on in the world.
Dr. Beth Dunlap, a board-certified addiction medicine and family medicine physician, is the medical director at CRC Institute, where she is responsible for overseeing all the integrated medical services at the Institute. Beth completed medical school, residency, and fellowship at Northwestern University, where she continues to serve on the faculty as a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She has extensive experience in addiction medicine at all levels of care, and her clinical interests include integrated primary care and addiction medicine, harm reduction, and medication-assisted treatment.
