How Long Can It Take To Recover From The Pandemic Of COVID-19

The last year was not just tough for so many people. It was profoundly traumatic.

We have lost our jobs, our love. Working parents had to deal with children from home attending virtual school. Racial disparities have become more marked. The addiction to drugs and alcohol soared. In addition, we have had far too many months of social isolation.

In the last year, almost a third of Americans reported anxiety and depression, a 200% jump from before the pandemic. Sejal Hathi, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and mental health board member Inseparable, said that both the direct viral effects of COVID-19 and the massive pandemic trauma to our psyches can trace the increasing mental health crisis to us.

Eventually, we will get a handle of COVID-19 with the help of the vaccines. The constraints will rise and we will be encouraged to leave and normally live our lives. But it could take us some time to rebound from all the events since March 2020. It’s not overnight to mentally heal from an event like a pandemic. Recovery takes time, patience and pity.

The first step is to recognise that what we have been through during the pandemic can be described as trauma, said Amy Cirbus, a New York-licensed mental health consultant and the Talkspace Clinical Content Director.

Much of what we usually rely on has been disrupted from our working life upward to the loss of financial safety, good health and family connections. “It is a trauma, we are affected, and we must admit that,” said Cirbus.

In order to start healing, we must first recognise (without comparing them to other people) our feelings and accept the challenges of the last year.

The last year was not just tough for so many people. It was profoundly traumatic.

We have lost our jobs, our beloved. Working parents had to deal with children from home attending virtual school. Racial disparities have become more marked. The addiction to drugs and alcohol soared. In addition, we have had far too many months of social isolation.

In the last year, almost a third of the Americans reported anxiety and depression, a 200% jump from before the pandemic. Sejal Hathi, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and mental health board member Inseparable, said that both the direct viral effects of COVID-19 and the massive pandemic trauma to our psyches can trace the increasing mental health crisis to us.

Much of what we usually rely on has been disrupted from our working life upward to loss of financial safety, good health and family connections. “It is a trauma, we are affected, and we must admit that,” said Cirbus.

In order to start healing, we must first recognise (without comparing them to other people) our feelings and accept the challenges of the last year.

How long is it going to take to cure what we have suffered?

Hathi said that we should not immediately expect to bounce back. “There is no black and white timeline,” how long it takes to recover from the pandemic psychologically.

Cirbus said all processes will look different and will vary depending on “how much of the circumstances and history they have been affected only by mental health [and] trauma.” The bigger the trauma, the longer it can take to heal.

We shouldn’t try to accelerate the process or expect to come back to exactly how things were before the pandemic. “It would ignore all we’ve been through,” said Cirbus.

Evidence collected following other crises, such as the epidemic of Ebola and 9/11, indicates that emotional pain can last long after traumatic events have subsided. The continuous activation of our response during crises can lead to depression, decreased immune functioning and sometimes months of physical health problems.

Some people may improve in six months, but symptoms for others may last much longer. Science suggests that healing from traumatic events depends largely on the resilience of a person.

“I think that we’re going to struggle for a very long time with the mental impact of this pandemic, [but] that doesn’t mean that it is going to give people permanent stress or permanent damage,” Hathi said.

What will be needed to improve our mental health?

Hathi said that investing in and expanding access to mental health is the most critical step for the country. Too many people with treatable mental health problems have difficulty finding high-quality, affordable care. The pandemic highlighted the urgent opportunity to reconsider how mental health looks.

It is important for each of us at an individual level to restore meaning and purpose in our lives, as the pandemic has removed so much that could have defined us before.

Research shows that people who have experienced trauma usually have smoother recoveries if they are undergoing therapy. Social support can also be an incredible buffer against PTSD symptoms and psychological problems, such as medication, exercise, and meditation.

The key step here is that they generally improve when post-traumatic symptoms are addressed. If these proven interventions are not used, problems with mental health could get much worse.

“I think it is important to splash this as soon as we can to get assistance when we need it, and then to ensure that we invest in integrated mental and physical health services at a more structural level,” Hathi said.

The best advice from Cirbus is to give yourself time. Some days may be harder, and that’s all right. Instead of focusing on how one day you feel, see how each month, three months, or six months you improve.

“We have no [for this] time stamp,” Cirbus said. “Give yourself more time to mark this process of healing.”

It will probably take a while for most of us to understand the pandemic and work with the aftermath, but emotional effects will not necessarily last for a whole lifetime.