Dr Michaela Pascoe from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, elaborated on the causes of the decline in mental health amongst children and adults.
Sputnik: Is this problem that’s exclusive to children or is the mental health of adults also at risk from the effects of Covid-19?
Michaela Pascoe: We know that children are more at risk than adults for the development of mental health issues. Generally, when mental health issues develop or first appear it's affecting people under 25 years old, so that is sort of a particularly vulnerable time of life and it's really important to be aware of protecting mental health because if mental health issues do develop during those times, they can follow people throughout their lifespan. Of course, mental illness does affect people of all ages but particularly young people more so than people who have an old age range.
Sputnik: When we look at the coronavirus, why is this causing such, if you will, a worsening of mental health particularly amongst children? Is this down to something like the uncertainty of the situation or are there more factors at play here?
Michaela Pascoe: Uncertainty plays a huge role but stress also plays a huge role. Early life stressors contribute to the onset. Stress in general precipitates mental illness, so we know that people who have very high levels of stress or recurring levels of stress start to have deregulation of the stress response system, which is essentially the system that every time something stressful happens in our body it kicks into the fight and flight or freeze mode to help us survive that threat. It's regulated in a very tight manner but if somebody is continually experiencing stress, the regulation of that system starts to fail and it means that people become more easily stressed and that when they do become stressed, that it's more difficult for them to return to a state of calm after the stressful event, and that's because of a few reasons, but one of them is that it causes very high levels of stress hormones.
So stressful situations like Covid-19 may create huge amounts of uncertainty, introducing other sorts of stressors that can be really detrimental, particularly because the circumstances that are occurring around Covid- 19, putting in barriers that mean that people are unable to engage in the behaviours that would usually promote or protect their mental health or wellbeing. Some of these things might be like physical activity as it becomes more difficult to access gyms or outdoor spaces or classes - with lockdowns most of these facilities are closed.
Sputnik: What steps can children and adults essentially undertake to protect mental health in quarantine? And also, what signs should individuals be looking out for in terms of an indication in a deterioration of mental health?
Michaela Pascoe: It is pretty common to experience an increase in symptoms of perhaps depressive symptoms or anxious symptoms. That's almost something that could be expected in a time like this, but it does become something perhaps more concerning or more potentially dangerous if it has lasted for more than a few weeks. It is expected that we would have these acute responses but if it's something that sticks around for a long time, that would be an important indicator to seek help and to seek some professional help and to visit your GP etc. Some of the mental health effects it has resulted in are physical changes, emotional changes, cognitive changes; you may see differences like changes in sleep patterns, changes in appetite, withdrawal from normal behaviours or changes from normal behaviour activities or withdrawing from people, irritability, feelings or thoughts that maybe people can't cope and they're feeling very overwhelmed.
Physical symptoms like butterflies in the stomach, racing heart rates sweaty palms. The symptoms of mental distress or psychological distress can be quite variable from one person to another, but a key thing would be looking for changes in normal ways of behaving or normal ways of thinking or feeling. You were saying what can people do to promote or protect their mental health... there six pillars of lifestyle medicine or lifestyle that we know that can protect and promote mental health. Sleep is one of them. It's really important to maintain sleep and make sure you're getting enough. Another is nutrition, making sure that you have a healthy diet and knowing what's good for us and what's bad for us rather than comfort eating through these periods. It is important to try and maintain some sort of intake of good nutrients. Social connectedness, so exercise is another one as well.
Stress Management - obviously where we can't reduce the sources of stress at the moments but we can try and support ourselves in managing the stress as it comes up. There are a range of different techniques. One of them is different meditations, there's a whole lot of apps with free meditations, guided meditations that can be downloaded and do some breathing techniques and we know that going outdoors is really helpful. As well as saying you're wanting to access essential services, you can also take a more a green route, maybe see some trees on your way that could be a good idea or even just getting out into the backyard on the balcony or something. Talking to people as well is really, really helpful.
