Symptoms of COVID Distress: Don’t fall prey to the PIG embedded in COVID

I had written yesterday rather tongue and cheek about COVID Fatigue (CF). With CF one can experience a range of emotions but CF will mean you are not mentally distressed to the degree you require help from mental health professionals. As a journalist I simply can’t give you a diagnosis if you are suffering from COVID Distress (CD) as that you must obtain from a mental health professional. There are a multitude of phone lines and on-line tools to assist you in recovering or mitigating CD. However actually seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist in these days of COVID is very difficult given the rising caseload they are dealing with.

With so many resources being thrown to plague management an already inadequately funded mental health system is struggling to deal with CD and for that matter even the regular health system is faltering due to cancellation/reduction of very serious surgeries. COVID-19 is a merciless pig sucking up resources and in effect transferring mortality to the population not infected by COVID because of its inadequate resources.

One common theme I hear from what I read on COVID and mental distress it causes that the root cause may be isolation. If you are alone and not connected to any social group on a regular basis this loneliness can steamroll into something far more ominous.

What are some of the warning signs of CD?

• Feelings of sadness
• Feeling there is nothing to look forward to or that the future looks hopeless
• Feeling a sense of failure
• Being dissatisfied are bored
• Feeling guilty
• Feeling of being punished
• Being disgusted or hating yourself
• Blaming yourself for everything bad that happens
• Thoughts of suicide
• Crying or wanting to cry but having the inability to do so
• Being irritated frequently
• Losing interest in other people
• Difficulty making decisions
• Feeling of looking ugly or unattractive
• Difficulty concentrating
• Being fatigued
• Difficulty sleeping
• Poor appetite
• Weight loss
• Very worried about physical health
• Lack of interest in sex

Of course, having serious thoughts of killing yourself is an alarm bell for immediate help. What if phone line or online help is not available one solution is simply to go to the ER room of your local hospital.

(The author is a Certified Contact Tracer (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) and certified in COVID-19 Training For Healthcare Workers (Stanford University)