Since the pandemic emerged, mental health experts have warned the stressors of uncertainty, isolation, loneliness and fear of infection, combined with prolonged severe lockdowns and loss of employment, would be damaging to mental health.
To some extent, they were right: Lifeline received a record-high number of calls on Monday from people seeking health advice — 3345 callers, the highest volume in the organisation’s 58-year history.
Mental health has been waning. ABS data shows that between April 2020 and June 2021, there have been huge fluctuations in Australians’ emotional and mental wellbeing. In June 2021, one in five Australians reported experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress in the last four weeks. While the proportion of Australians experiencing these feelings decreased between August 2020 and November 2020, there has been little change since then.
But there’s another story to tell, and that involves identifying what has helped people to cope with the psychological stressors posed by COVID-19.
Research by myself and my colleague Sophie Lewis, which is currently under review, has illuminated how Australians who were already living with a diagnosis of mental illness experienced the first national lockdown, which began in March 2020.
From extensive phone interviews, we built detailed case studies which demonstrated not only how mental health worsened but, perhaps surprisingly, how well some people coped with the anxieties and fears that many Australians felt during this early period of the pandemic.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety, depression and agoraphobia reported that their mental health deteriorated initially. Messages about hygiene and distancing from other people made them feel uncomfortable in public places.
But in some cases, these people were able to manage them successfully. Having access to their therapists using telepsychology was an important source of support for these people. It meant that they could continue their treatment with a familiar therapist. Even though the therapy was now offered online, it was still helpful.
People also mentioned that having already lived with mental health distress in the past meant that they were better equipped to deal with it when COVID-19 erupted. In some cases, they were able to offer support to their friends or family members using the skills they had acquired. This support in turn helped people to feel as if they were building on their social relationships. They gained psychological benefits from helping others.
Many Australians have found that using video-call or messaging apps and social media has helped them maintain social connections with friends and family and alleviate loneliness. This was also the case for our participants, whether or not they were living with a mental health condition.
While social media sites such as Facebook are often subject to criticism, they were an important way that people were able to keep in touch with others, helping them feel less isolated.
Companion animals also offered a vital source of comfort and company for people, including those with mental illness. In the absence of being able to touch other people, dogs or cats offered warm-blooded affection. As one of our participants remarked, “I’d be lost without my cat”.
While many people’s mental health has been impacted by the pandemic, those with the tools to cope have fared better than expected, enabling them to help those with less experience in managing their mental wellbeing.
Deborah Lupton is a Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre and Leader of the Vitalities Lab at UNSW.
Many people of my acquaintance are retired or able to work from home and they have enjoyed the slower pace of life created by the pandemic. No longer are people flying overseas, spending hours in airport queues when on a holiday purported to be relaxing….but in reality sometimes stressful. People have more time to potter about, think about others in their lives and to appreciate friendships – especially if they are far removed from family members and suddenly more reliant on neighbours.
So it ain’t all bad.
Thank you very much for that article Deborah. But a really big “thank you” for the work that you and others are doing for those with a mental illness. I am a septuagenarian and I have, over the years, seen quite a number of people very close to me suffer from mental disorders ranging from anorexia, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression, anxiety, hoarding, and PTSD. The consequences for those people who have suffered from these disorders has ranged from suicide and early death to reclusion and eccentric behavior.
The work that you and people like you do for those suffering from these disorders is grossly undervalued by our community. I think that the simple fact of the matter is that most people do not really understand the nature of mental illness. They do not appreciate that in many instances it is a case of “there but for the grace of god, go I”. I may be wrong because I am no expert in this area like yourself, but I feel that in many instances these illnesses are genetically based. Unfortunately none of us have the privilege of ‘choosing our parents’. Then again, there are cases where some people are ‘normal’ for part of the time and ‘not well’ on other occasions. I seem mental illness as being an extremely complex area that is clearly not well understood, even by the experts.
I have had, on more than one occasion, had to restrain myself from being over critical of the crowd that demonstrate against lockdowns and COVID restrictions, as I am sure that many of those people are not thinking entirely clearly.
Once again Deborah, thank you again for your great work and advocacy. I hope that governments will, in the future provide you and your colleagues all the support that you need. Much more could be said but I will leave it at that.
There does appear to be some links made elsewhere with claims of significant increases in mental health issues due to lockdowns, appearing in media, and radical right libertarians using as an excuse to stay open, no matter what.
Withstanding those with substantive mental health issues in one’s own community, am quite tired of many others claiming issues e.g. missing their ‘freedom and liberty’ and framing as mental health.
Plus the billionaires are laughing. Going great for them even without all the billions of our money the govt is throwing at them
Yes, there have been some upsides. In my experience, people who would never have attended groups in person joined in on Zoom. And some then came in person when we opened up.