One of the questions I've been pondering over the last year has been, "How has the pandemic (and our adopted countermeasures) affected the mental state of our society?"
Great question right? I think so anyway.
In the Spring of 2020, the CDC (amidst it's many other responsibilities) began conducting a weekly survey of the American populace. This Household Pulse Survey displayed "the percentage of adults who report symptoms of anxiety or depression that have been shown to be associated with diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder."
Without getting into the very technical aspects of mental health diagnosing and surveying, the survey asked four questions with a 0-3 scoring scale (0 being never, 3 being every day):
Over the last 7 days, how often have you been bothered by … having little interest or pleasure in doing things?
Over the last 7 days, how often have you been bothered by … feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?
Over the last 7 days, how often have you been bothered by the following problems … Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge?
Over the last 7 days, how often have you been bothered by the following problems … Not being able to stop or control worrying?
As a point of reference, roughly 10% of the American population was diagnosed with some form of Generalized Anxiety or Depressive Disorder in 2019. Among high school and college students, these trends were considered epidemic.
So, what did the data show? I'll let the picture speak for itself:
Ok - so you didn't get a perfect score on the science section of the ACT? No worries - let me help. Here's the big takeaway from the data: roughly 40% of Americans are self reporting that they are experiencing symptoms of Anxiety and Depression almost every day.
BUT WAIT! There's more...here's the same data when broken down by age demographic:
To summarize: about 55% of all Americans between 18-29 years of age are reporting these symptoms being present almost every day. That number, ironically given the nature of COVID and it's proclivity to adversely affect older populations, decreases steadily with age demographics.
If you've made it this far (and bless you for it), you might be wondering where I'm going with this data. Here's my very keen, very astute, and very informed observation: we're fried!
Roughly half of the population right now is absolutely cooked, charred, and overall burned out. Moreover, it's clear that many of us haven't found any meaningful or helpful ways of coping with the stress of our world. If anything, it's gotten worse over the last few months.
While there are many reasons why this is the case (and I'll talk more about this next week), I think our response to the Pandemic is one of the main culprits. While many of the things we've done were with the best intent, you know the old saying right? The road to hell is paved with good intentions...so, here's a few things that I've observed that were undoubtedly done with the best of intentions, but have resulted in a lot of challenges.
Tracking the Data: Since March, I've seen that the local news has been running a ticker at the bottom of the screen. The data presented includes numbers of COVID cases in our region, hospitalizations, and death counts. Trust me: I'm all about using data to make informed decisions. But what's this doing to our hearts and our minds? At one level, I think it not so subtly communicates that there is no hope. Whatever else it might have done, I don't think it helped us be less anxious and less depressed. Frankly, I'm not even sure it kept us safer. Which brings me to the next point....
Abundance of Caution: Since when was it unacceptable to make decisions based on an appropriate amount of caution? I'm not sure who started it, and it may have just been filler words to them at the time, but the phrase, "out of an abundance of caution" has done way more harm than good. The problem is that an abundance of caution precludes risk. This ideology has also elevated safety to be our chief societal virtue....which I'm not sure is a good thing either. An appropriate amount of caution would suggest that wearing masks and physical distancing is a good thing and should be thoughtfully and respectfully utilized. An abundance of caution leads to the next three plages we've faced...
Social Distancing:...is a misnomer. What the CDC really meant was "physical distancing" as in, "keep at least six feet between yourself and strangers so that you don't breathe their air." What was communicated was more akin to, "stay away from social interaction." Going back to our data, we could say it's a coincidence that the numbers for Anxiety and Depression symptoms are so high when our normal social interactions have been dramatically changed. We could say there's no relationship between children being depressed and not being able to see any other kids. But I think we all know that's unlikely. Speaking only for myself here, I made a decision last Spring that I was going to pick a handful of people outside my immediate household and claim them as my family. I would let them in my home and eat with them and talk to them without a mask on. Did this increase my risk to COVID? Sure did. Did it keep me sane? Sure did. My point with this is to suggest that we were not made to live in isolation. We need other people. And removing them from our lives has been a problem. The big problem was that in an effort to curb shallow and wide social interactions, we have unknowingly curbed deep social interactions too.
Stay at Home: Again, the intent here was to avoid large social gatherings...which is fine and good. But what was actually said was, "Stay at home." Accordingly, public outdoor spaces closed down. Not everyone has 40 acres (or even a half acre) to run around on. And human beings were not made to spend our lives in the Air Conditioning...we were literally made to be outside. Accessible public land is essential to a mentally and emotionally healthy society. Too many of us think of it as a nice luxury but not a necessity. Again, speaking personally, I've found it to be essential over the last year.
Essential Work: Speaking of essential, isn't it everyone's dream to be told they are, quite literally, "not essential workers"? Who wouldn't love the idea that the activity that I spend 1/3 of my waking hours with is inessential. Again, the intent was good but the implications were not. Humans need to have meaning and a sense of purpose. Many (not all) people find that in their vocations. Most (not all) are dependent upon their work for income. And everyone needs some kind of income to function well. Maybe it's just me, but being labeled as "non-essential" seems to rhyme with "disposable" which lends itself toward a depressive spiral.
That's a lot isn't it? The reason we went through the list was not to condemn or criticize. Leadership is hard and I really believe that those in positions of leadership did their best with a totally unknown situation. Rather, I think it's important to name the places over the last year that have facilitated our increased mental health challenges. Every decision has tradeoffs and none of us can undo the past. But we can learn from it and move forward with clarity, vision, and integrity.
Next week, I'll dig into a few spiritual practices that I think are crucial for helping us find peace and hope. But before I go, let me remind us of what's at stake. Obviously, COVID is a problem. And obviously, many people have died from the disease. On top of that, none of what I wrote about here says anything about the levels of unemployment and lost income as a result of the pandemic. None of that is good. But it would also be a mistake not to think of the downstream effects of our societal response and how it's changed our behavior.
I'm incredibly optimistic though (it's in my nature). I wholeheartedly agree with Dallas Willard on this point: there is nothing in the world that discipleship to Jesus cannot solve. Nothing. I think our natural inclination to disagree with that point betrays our fundamental misconceptions about Jesus, His Kingdom, and the nature of discipleship itself...but more on that another day.
In the meantime, if you've been having a hard time with any of this...maybe experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression yourself, don't hesitate to reach out. I'd love to talk with you and pray with you. In the meantime, this prayer from Paul has been so important to me over the last few years: May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in him that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may overflow with Hope.
Comments