The Mental Breakdown That Came With The Economic Lockdown

One of the leading causes today of adolescent deaths is suicide and the recent lockdown from the COVID-19 event didn't help things. The lockdown managed to push many individuals deeper into a depression, as they were suddenly cut off from their normal routine and from accessing friends and loved ones like they might usually be. Not only that but many unexpectedly lost their jobs, or were struggling for weeks just to try and find their basic neccessities.

Calls to help lines increased dramatically in those weeks that people were forced to stay at home.

In some cases, calls to those help lines were seen to grow more than 800 percent for people who were reaching out to crisis lines for help in dealing with the situation.

While there are some people who might have felt like it was business as usual, being an introvert or someone who spends a lot of time alone or at home etc, for others it severely damaged their well-being and standard of living. Now, mental health experts are paying closer attention and highlighting the reality that for many young people, and others, that unexpected time spent away from usual social settings didn't come as a benefit but a detriment instead. And efforts to focus on prevention are looking to target children earlier, such as those who are attending elementary school.

Having to stay away from friends, co-workers, and loved ones, can negatively impact an individuals life, potentially fueling more stress in their lives, among other potential negative consequences. But it isn't any secret that having strong social ties helps to fuel a variety of potentially positive health outcomes, studies have investigated and suggested this narrative for years now.

Along with the lockdown came a rush for gun purchases too, which is usually the case when some big event takes place. Recent research has suggested that those increases in gun purchases also increase the risk of suicide and that shouldn't come as a surprise. When someone wants to take their life, if they have access to a gun then that might increase their chances of doing something. But there are a variety of easily obtained items that can cause great harm to the individual, aside from guns. So the concern that someone might use it to harm themselves shouldn't be reason to infringe those rights.

Previous investigations into the prevalence of mental health for those living in the United States have suggested that there might be some 17+ million people living with depression. Teen depression has also been on the rise in recent years.

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