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LINK The next pandemic will be in mental health

By NAJMA F. HAMDANI, MD

I had my first full day of telemedicine today. Telemedicine is my happy place. For the last two years, I have provided telepsychiatry for a rural facility in my home state. I had the privilege of talking to my patients in their homes today. I was beyond humbled that my patients embraced the change with me and invited me into their homes. As I saw them in their homes with their lives around them, it became even more evident that we are treading uncharted waters. We are all anxious, vulnerable, and want answers, yet there are no simple answers.

I recognized today that we are all going through grief and all of its stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It is evident by varying degrees of difficulty in our communities, in adopting social distancing. It’s scary to let go of what we have always had but taken for granted—losing our routine, our traditional ways of conducting life at work or at home and dealing with losing our social connections. Some are in denial that spring has rolled around without the usual burst of life and activity. We are angry and sad that we are losing our celebrations, graduations, usual joyful transitions from winter to spring, and that too without a deadline for when we can have them back? We are struggling with losing the joy of gatherings, hugs, handshakes, and eating together. Many of us are already bargaining and accepting this pandemic by adapting technology to wait this out until we come out on the other side.

HippieChick58 9 Dec 10
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15 comments

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2

I choose mushrooms and LSD. Adaptation is easier with a little help from our friends from nature.

THC is my therapy of choice, since mushrooms make me throw up and LSD makes me paranoid. LOL

2

That's what people do, adapt. See Darwin and Evolution.

1

I fear life in America has forever been altered.

1

Gosh, I hate to think what would happened if a war broke out and suddenly there were bombs around.

4

Imagine what life was like in 1918. The medical field had no idea how to deal with this pandemic and we did not have the social infrastructures we have today. Hell, even radio was not available to the masses. Yes, life is rough but it could be a lot worse. Sometimes I think one major problem is the social networks we have today. They have become a polarizer instead of a uniter.

6

When we have 72 million fascist Trump cultists, we have a serious problem with mental illness!

2

One of my favorite quips is: We swim in a sea of ignorance. But equally troubling is that many people regard psychology & psychiatry as hokey bullshit. The combination of ignorance with the attitude that mental illness is imaginary, worsened by the attitude of the oaf in the White House for the past 4 years, who is BOTH ignorant and mentally ill, has created this sick situation in American society. And now, the bastard is trying--REALLY trying to start a revolution.

Mental illness is physical illness, we shouldn't differentiate. Perhaps part of the problem is the stigma around what is currently called mental illness.

@MizJ As one who has battled and is STILL battling Chronic Recurrent Depression, Agoraphobia and Anxiety Attacks I agree with you whole-heartedly on that.
IT not ONLY affects the mind but the whole body as well.

4

Thats quite a bit behind in my opinion. We've had a serious mental health crisis for quite awhile. Especially in the U.S.

2

And possibly in ignorance and blindness and stupidity as well.

7

I'm 78 years old. When I was younger it seemed to me that people were smarter and mentally sound. Now in my 70s people seem dumb and unhinged. Is it something in the food or water?

I blame it on our worsening educational system and the corporate media after the monopolization process of mass media that began in the 1970s. The educational system for those who don't go to college has long been geared to educate people just enough to run the machines, so to speak, but not enough to become informed, educated citizens who could intelligently critique and challenge their government or the capitalist system. The colleges also cooperate in this indoctrination by teaching most of their graduates to sell out to the system and become willing members of the coordinator class and spend their careers keeping the working class in line while opposing any reform of the system in favor of the working class and the poor.

@TomMcGiverin I think you are correct.

Possibly. All those preservatives such as MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and Aspartame, (also marketed as equal) as well as Splenda, are in many foods we eat and also in gum and some candy. These artificial sweeteners are actually worse than processed table sugar and possibly even processed salt. So consumption of these various chemicals on a daily basis over many years as well as the chemicals created by the interaction with the other ones, does seem to offer some kind of sign that that’s true.

Bull. In the past you shoved your feelings down and pretended they didn’t exist or affect you. Which often let to parents physically and mentally abusing their children.

Those who had serious mental health issues were locked up in state hospitals and often not visited by their families. Which led to filthy conditions and abuse of patients.

But yeah, tell me how dumb and unhinged the younger generation is 🙄

@Marcie1974

Good point, we actually treat mental health issues now so it's much more visible. It used to be in the background and in the shadows but was very much there. Not only was it there, it was mostly untreated, so it was much worse. This guy thinks that people of his generation were more mentally sound because those who weren't, were kept shut away.

You are right! Young people are a lot dumber than they used to be! I attribute it , at least in part, to a lack of history, geography, and social studies, at the elementary, and middle school level.

@davknight

You have it completely backward. The intelligence of people has been rising steadily for over 100 years. Kids today are smarter than they have ever been. They have massive advantages. With the increased complexity of technology and the world generally, the IQ of the average person increases to match it.

[apa.org]

@RoboGraham seems like a lot of older folks think if things are done differently than they were in their day, then it’s automatically dumb and unhinged.

The only constant is change. If we go back 78 years, it’s 1942, looking at gender and racial equality, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go back to that.

@Marcie1974

Exactly. I think these old timers have a hard time remembering way back when they were young, so they compare their older wiser selves to the children of today. Of course you will seem to be smarter than most kids if you've lived seven decades.

In 1942, the world was on fire.

@Marcie1974 Come on....those were the good old days..

@nicknotes sure they were: segregation, Japanese internment camps, not able to divorce an abusive spouse, not being able to report abusive parents, locking up relatives with depression and forgetting about them, women having few ways to support themselves.

Sounds terrific!

@Marcie1974 But we had great Rock and Roll Music.

6

Not the next, we have been in a mental health pandemic crisis for years.

"One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide."

If this isn't a pandemic i don't know what is.

There’s a nationwide shortage of mental health workers as well

3

I deal with mental issues everyday of my life.

8

I have to admit that I've struggled this week....The desperate utter bullshit coming out of one political party sickens me. And I know both sides have bullshit to some degree, but the R's are seriously unhinged and dangerous.

And with their being “Conservative Christians” makes it even more hypocritical.

4

I’m on a low this week. Nine months on Sunday. No relief til June. 😢

I completely agree with this statement. Nowadays, I hear more and more news that most stars already have some psychological problems and diseases. What about stars, even ordinary people often have similar problems. Even my mother suffers from partial paralysis of the central nervous system, which makes her need special and constant care.
For this reason, I very often have to look for a senior caregiver near me. I try to look for caregivers recommended by my friends to be sure of the people I hire. This policy works quite well. My mother has not complained about any caregiver yet.

8

We already have that pandemic. When the virus is over mental illness won't go anywhere.

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