Global Pandemic Taking Its Toll on Americans as Drinking and Depression Rise Steeply

This is not an easy time to be alive, that goes without saying, and Americans appear to be taking it out on themselves.

For the first time in our lifetimes, a global pandemic has brought the world to its knees.  COVID-19 still has no real cure, and no legitimate vaccine.  Sure, Russia announced that Putin’s daughter was being inoculated with the nation’s “Sputnik” vaccine, but serious medical experts the world over have little faith in Moscow’s proclamation of its effectiveness.

All we really have is social distancing to keep the virus at bay, and this had led to bouts of frustration, loneliness, and despair.

A new study demonstrates just how hard some of us are taking it.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a marked deterioration in Americans’ mental health, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study made public on Thursday. That study, which surveyed 5,412 Americans, found that “40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition.”

According to the new study, 31 percent of respondents were suffering from symptoms of anxiety or depression; 26 percent experienced symptoms of traumatic disorder; 13 percent were using drugs or alcohol more heavily, or for the first time, to cope with the pandemic; and 11 percent had seriously contemplated suicide.

Some of us seem to be effected more significantly than others.

“Younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse” mental health outcomes than other groups, the study concluded.

We can only hope that the rebound from COVID-19 is as profound as it was after the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in which the economic turnaround was the catalyst for a decadent decade of prosperity and excess.