We've been in a mental health crisis for years. Lost several mates to suicide or drug overdoses the last few years
I kinda want people to remember this doesn't stop being an issue because we're 'back to normal'
It actually gets worse. I am seeing clients off a waiting list which, at least at the start of lockdown, predated any Covid-related anxiety, but every single one of them has been significantly affected, in one way or another, by what is happening. Often, quite profoundly.
The ongoing mental health fallout from this is absolutely
massive. A lot of people will recover spontaneously, but a lot are going to be dealing with what are, in effect, trauma symptoms.
I shall make a prediction. The Government will make lots of sensitive and caring noises, as they relabel some miserable pot of funds they were already spending to make it look like they're pouring additional funding into MH - they won't be. Then we'll start hearing stories about how DWP are upping the pressure on people to "get a job", etc., and discounting any MH symptoms in their infamous fit-for-work tests.
Suicide rates in the UK are already upticking pretty sharply, and have been for a couple of years, almost certainly thanks to this government's austerity/bash-the-benefits-claimants agenda, so the good news for the Government will be that the ongoing increase - oh, there
will be an ongoing increase - will be lost in the numbers, but the combination of post-traumatic consequences and the inevitable post-Covid economic collapse is going to be positively shepherding people in the direction of desperate and permanent solutions to temporary problems.
And, alongside that, you will see other increases in MH/trauma-related events - significantly higher levels of alcohol and other substance misuse, further increases in domestic violence (and violence in general). All of which will, of course, be fingerpointed back to individuals, not ever seen as the direct result of government policy, inaction, and incompetence.
It's going to be a fucking mess.
