While the exact numbers won’t be in for some time still, early studies are suggesting that 2020 will end up showing a significant increase in mental health issues in general and suicide in particular. The CDC is still working through all of the reports and collecting data and has not released any figures as of this writing (February 2021). Anecdotal reports from hospital workers, EMTs, and police departments paint a dark picture, with suicides increasing all across the country.
This is not exactly surprising, as suicide shares an intimate relationship with mental health issues, and 2020 was a very stressful year for many, many people. This may be likened to the increases in suicides that were seen in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, albeit much more severe. The COVID pandemic has all the ingredients of the 2008 crisis such as high unemployment and evictions, with the addition of other stressors including health concerns, healthcare provider shortages, isolation, financial struggles, and no clear end in sight.
Although further research is needed to confirm or elaborate this claim, a study done in the Netherlands found that, while the COVID pandemic affected people with and without mental health issues, those with pre-existing mental health conditions reported minimal distress due to the pandemic. While the persons with pre-existing mental health conditions still scored higher on their symptom severity, they showed almost no increase from pre- to mid-pandemic, whereas persons with no such mental health issues showed significant increases in distress from pre- to mid-pandemic. This study is reporting data taken in the first few weeks of the national lockdown in the Netherlands, so further studies are certainly needed. This does, however, help to illustrate the fact that someone need not already suffer from mental health challenges to experience depression, increased anxiety, and even thoughts of suicide due to the added stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
