Mental Health

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we fixated on physical health. What about mental health? In short, we seemed apathetic.

There were signs that mental health was a known concern. Both the CDC and WHO recommended that people turn off the news for the sake of mental health. Conveniently, news agencies failed to report this.

The argument for turning off the news was primarily because the media's approach to reporting on the pandemic was increasing anxiety. As I have already stated, the media openly engaged in fear mongering. This is why it made so much sense that they could fuel mental problems.

The issues surrounding mental health were not confined to fear mongering. The loss of freedom during this time was also problematic. Some people legitimately struggled with the heavy-handed oppression from authoritarian leaders during this time. In all honesty, I would say that I was a part of this group.

The media had an agenda from the very beginning. They constantly downplayed the dangers to mental health that emerged during the pandemic. Harm to mental health can have serious consequences such as deaths of despair and an increase in violence. The media avoided this topic because they wanted oppression. They wanted lockdowns. They didn't care that their antics were ending lives.

Even when the media had to acknowledge issues with mental health, they pushed an intentionally skewed narrative. They insisted that the mental health crisis was caused strictly by the pandemic. They acknowledged that social isolation was a factor. They never acknowledged that social isolation was not caused by the pandemic itself. The social isolation was primarily caused by government-imposed constraints. These are the same constraints they were manipulating the public into supporting. Let me say this clearly. The pandemic did not create a mental health crisis. Our response to the pandemic did.

Yes, people died from SARS-COV-2. Yes, some of our policies helped reduce the death toll. That doesn't mean our approach to handling the pandemic was the right approach. We shouldn't have downplayed the negative consequences of our actions. Government constraints were not a mere inconvenience. They were disastrous for mental health. In many cases, our actions cost people their lives. In fact, they will likely continue to cost people their lives since these issues can be long lasting.

Even if you feel that the lives saved were more significant than the lives lost, we never should have misrepresented the situation. People who were suffering were being mocked by those who supported authoritarian solutions. This behavior might have even pushed a few over the edge. These people were suffering. They didn't need the media to turn them into villains.