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A Pandemic within a Pandemic: Battling Addiction and Mental Health Issues In COVID-19 Times

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A Pandemic within a Pandemic: Battling Addiction and Mental Health Issues In COVID-19 Times

Extensive lockdown, closings, as well as social distancing steps, have actually made it challenging for those seeking counsel and also therapy for substance abuse concerns to safeguard resources. Currently, The United States is experiencing a surge in liquor sales and treatment relapse as the substance abuse issues become noticeable.

According to the expert research “Epidemic amid a Pandemic- Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19,” researchers have cited that “The Coronavirus pandemic is a serious threat to the millions of Americans who are dealing with opioid usage disorder. ” – already at risk as well as marginalized– are heavily reliant on face-to-face health and wellness care delivery.

How is COVID-19 affecting the mental health of those people who are in recovery?

Before COVID-19, we were already experiencing a discreet pandemic and that’s with people’s mental wellness, opiate addiction, and substance abuse. What COVID-19 did was sustain this ongoing pandemic. People who just started recovery programs and help therapies (short-term or long-term) like counseling sessions, step-by-step approach and meetings, Christian and other religious fellowships and smart approach recovery are now on the brink of going back to square one. Currently, many of them have some substantial fears like: “What if I lose my job?”, “How can I pay my rent?”, “Whom am I going to talk to?”, “Who would help me right now? everyone’s struggling”. Relapses have now been above the ceiling.

Plus, there’s still a lot who are struggling with their mental health that is not getting the support and help. The current pandemic fueled some underlying mental health issues like stress, depression, anxiety, and other disorders that before, people were able to hide. We can also see a lot being more dependent on alcohol due to the influx of alcohol sales of up to 250%.

Humans need purpose as well as connection, without that, it’s easy to enter into a distracted state of mind. A person in early recovery can’t go obtain their six-month soberness coin or celebrate their victory of being sober. Then, the littlest things to worst can enter their thoughts like “A few shots won’t hurt, I can have a little drink”, or “I can’t sleep, maybe I can puff a little weed to chill.”, “I am having an anxiety attack, let me can my doctor to have Xanax prescribed.” The Coronavirus has not only taken the lives of people because of the illness itself but it opened Pandora’s box directly affecting people with mental health conditions. If we look at the data, the Suicide toll went up to 1000% globally, and mental helplines are taking 800% more calls.

What can family members do to identify the symptoms and also to help this individual with recovery during this moment?

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