The impact that the pandemic had in the mental health crisis was minimal. This is the conclusion reached in a review of articles carried out by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), according to which the state of mental health of the society in general has hardly deteriorated. However, the general perception is that “we are worse” than before the covid pandemic. After reviewing hundreds of studies, the BMJ research ensures that the changes are not significant, although mental health in women has worsened quite significantly. “Women are more likely to experience poverty, sexual or domestic violence,” writes Dr. Sanah Ahsan, clinical psychologist, in the British newspaper The Guardian. Other articles point out that we have felt the impact of COVID in our double role as workers and caregivers in charge of household tasks. A worsening of the state is also observed in some particular groups such as young people and the most disadvantaged people. Other groups, such as journalists who covered the pandemic, have suffered levels of anxiety or depression similar to those of first aid emergency teams who have worked on the front lines, according to another BMJ study. For almost 70% of them, the emotional and psychological impact has been the most difficult part of their coverage.
What is happening then?
On the one hand, coronavirus has changed our lives for better and for worse. “I don’t understand how I could go to the office from Monday to Friday,” someone told me recently, a comment I have often heard since teleworking came to stay. For those of us lucky enough not to have lost a loved one or suffered serious health problems from COVID19, we can say that some changes have been positive. Shopping on weekdays when there are hardly any people in the market, being able to buy fresh products instead of having to rush to the supermarket at the last minute and stand in line to pay is healthier for our bodies and minds, but also for the planet. Working from home two or three days a week is not only a mental and physical break for many people, but also allows for a better balance between personal and work life and reduces mobility, which has become a real problem in many cities around the world. For this reason, it is possible that this improvement in some of our living conditions now leaves us with a feeling of being worse off than before.
But beyond this, there are other realities such as job insecurity, rent increases in many cities or excessive workload. The pandemic has been compounded by a war in Europe and the economic crisis. The use and abuse of the digital connection that we experienced during lockdown and the implementation of teleworking also have an effect on our mental health. Every year, about 12,000 million working days are lost due to mental problems according to data from the platform EMPOWER, a European project that drives mental health in the workplace. As a society, we have a responsibility to solve structural problems and demand the responsible people to take charge. If not, mental health problems will cost the global economy around $16 trillion by 2030.
Experts already talk of (techno) stress to refer to the psychological impact of information and communication technologies on our lives, for example, in terms of increased productivity or job satisfaction, both positive (autonomy or flexibility provided by teleworking) and negative, associated with problems of anxiety or fatigue. However, technology is one of the main sources of stress, as EMPOWER project researchers say in their blog EMPOWERed While Working. «Technology uses the dopamine cycle to generate that state of need to a search for unfulfilled satisfaction, that forces you to keep looking for the next one; precisely, to get out of that boredom, but it is a way out that never comes”, explains Paloma Llaneza, author of Datanomics, in Ethic. That “techno-stress” exhausts us. That is why it is important to follow some digital wellbeing guidelines, such as disconnecting when it is time to rest and not replying to messages beyond a reasonable time of day. If we are not aware of these daily habits, hyperconnection can lead us to a continuous feeling of stress.
Perhaps, what that feeling of discomfort is telling us is that we need to review our day-to-day life, slow down again and make small changes that allow us to live better. At the moment, this is all that is in our hands. That is why my invitation is to take action of the small daily gestures that can change our perception from “feeling bad” to “being well”.
María Miret García Periodista especializada en salud y responsable de comunicación del proyecto EMPOWER
