The end of the emergency phase of the pandemic is in sight in the United States, at least for now. But as the weight of the crisis is lifted, experts are also anticipating a long-term impact on people’s mental health.
For some people, the feelings of anxiety and depression that emerged during the pandemic will resolve as routines resume — people go back to the office, social connections are reformed, the seeming danger of activities dissipates. But others will face new or worse mental health issues that persist or even appear down the road, a number that could be quite large given the magnitude of despair and disruption. That burden, however big, stands to put an even greater strain on an already stretched mental health system.
“In the best of times, there is untreated mental illness,” said Susan Borja, the chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Dimensional Traumatic Stress Research Program. “Even a small increase in the rates of people with new or worsening mental illness is going to be a problem.” And with the pandemic, “it has been the entire country” facing new stressors, Borja said.