In its survey of mental health in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that 40% of adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse. The prevalence of anxiety disorder symptoms was approximately three times that reported in the same period last year (25.5% versus 8.1%), while the prevalence of depressive disorder was four times higher (24.3% versus 6.5%).
A study published in the American Medical Association journal earlier this month reported similar results. Nearly a quarter of Americans are experiencing symptoms of depression—three times higher than before the pandemic began.
Even the study’s authors were surprised. "These rates were higher than what we've seen in the general population after other large-scale traumas like September 11, Hurricane Katrina and the Hong Kong unrest," said Catherine Ettman of Brown University.
"I think it reflects both the widespread nature of this particular trauma as well as the fact that there are multiple traumas," said the study’s co-author, Dr. Sandro Galea of Boston University. In contrast to other crises defined by a dramatic but single event, the pandemic has been a slowly unwinding series of events that seem to be never-ending. That has taken a real toll on our collective psyche.