Stress and fear of COVID-19 can take its toll.
Melissa Rein Lively, the woman who was filmed destroying a mask in early July on a Target TGT,
in Scottsdale, Arizona, and posted it on social media, says he spent a week at a mental health center after the incident, and is using the public collapse as a warning for others to seek help for mental health-related problems, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think mental illness has really been something that has not been addressed as a result of this pandemic,” Rein Lively, who said he received death threats after the July 4 incident, told USA Today, “because what I It was terrifying and it changed my life forever. I felt like I had absolutely no control over my actions. “
Rein Lively, CEO and founder of a public relations firm, said: “It will take me a long time to rebuild people’s trust, you know, as I get my life and career back. I love what I do and I am passionate about what I do. I do and I will fight this. ”The video has been seen on Twitter TWTR,
more than 10 million times
The public collapse caused people online to call her “Arizona Karen,” the name used for white women who are considered privileged or entitled, and refuse to wear face masks in stores or social distance, and argue with staff about problems and / or call the police about blacks for no reason. But it is also a reminder that mental health issues are also caught in the mix.
“Pandemics can be stressful,” say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says that fear and concern about your own health and the health of your loved ones, your financial or work situation, or the loss of support services you trust, can negatively affect your mental health. A recent Census Bureau survey found an increase in depression-related mood disorders during the pandemic.
Health authorities are concerned about the impact of the pandemic and job losses on people’s mental health, and some say it could lead to tragic results. The growing epidemic of “despair deaths” in the United States is also increasing due to the pandemic, with an additional 75,000 more likely to die from drug or alcohol abuse and suicide, according to recent research.
Trump has vacillated between heeding the advice of public health experts and yielding to the opinions of medical professionals on the importance of wearing face masks.
Photographic illustration from MarketWatch / Getty Images
The study, published in May by the Well Being Trust and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, said projections of additional “deaths of despair” range from 27,644, assuming rapid economic recovery and least impact. unemployment, to 154,037, assuming a slow recovery and the greatest impact of unemployment.
“We can prevent these deaths by taking meaningful and comprehensive measures,” he said. “More Americans could lose their lives to deaths of despair, deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide, if we don’t do something right away. Deaths from despair have been on the rise over the past decade, and in the context of COVID-19, deaths from despair should be seen as the epidemic within the pandemic. “
The federal government must fully support and invest in a plan to improve mental health care, said Benjamin Miller, chief strategy officer for the Well Being Trust. “If we work to establish healthy conditions in the community, good health care coverage and inclusive policies, we can improve mental health and well-being,” he added.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that efforts to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, is driving the economy into another Great Recession; the impact has sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
bouncing wildly in recent months.
The debate over the ramifications of a months-long shutdown of the economy has been both emotional and sobering. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the leading experts in the US on infectious diseases, has pleaded with people to wear masks, wash their hands, socially walk away, and avoid crowded places.
Others see it as a zero-sum game of the survival of the economy against the highlights of a public health emergency, as well as the gulf between left and right on the American political spectrum. The left generally believes that strong social structures create a stronger economy for everyone. The right traditionally follows the idea that a strong economic system breeds strong social structures for everyone.
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