Mental health concerns during the corona virus pandemic — Thoughts on Life and Love

Mental health concerns during the corona virus pandemic have been on my mind constantly over the past week or so. Each day has brought with it stricter measures, imposing further limits to our personal freedom. As we have never experienced something like this before in our lifetimes, it does seem as if the blind are leading the blind. Immediate rules are being imposed without any measurable concern for the long term mental health of people forced into self isolation. My concern is how feasible this is to maintain for as long as 12 weeks or more as well as how individual’s mental health will be affected. In fact, I don’t believe it will be possible to maintain this self isolation for longer than 6 weeks or so before people start to go stir crazy (and possibly break the rules).

Increased domestic abuse

In my opinion, domestic abuse is going to increase. As families are cooped up with each other with little respite — physical, mental and emotional abuse is going to rise dramatically. As a society, we aren’t geared at all for a life spent at home indefinitely, with very little to distract us. Family members can be easy targets and many spouses and children will end up as ‘emotional punching bags’. Some family members will have lost their jobs, sporting events have…