People would be crushed by second coronavirus wave, psychologists say

by Alexandra Lonas, Intern
WashingtonExaminer.com
June 19, 2020

A second wave of the coronavirus would harm the public’s mental health after people built up hope during the reopening of the country, psychologists say.

“I think a second wave would be devastating for a lot of people,” Dr. Crystal Park, professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, told the Washington Examiner. “There is a sense that we have been through a really terrible, traumatic time and we are now in a phase of reopening and recovery.”

People started to put some of the stress of COVID-19 behind them, so a second wave would “provoke a whole new and perhaps deeper sense of fear and uncertainty,” Park said. “We would be feeling like we are retraumatized and likely more distressed and hopeless than the first time around.”

In the middle of the first wave, over 45% of the public said the stress of the coronavirus had negatively affected their mental health, according to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Feelings of isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse have all been on the rise,” said Dr. Jamie Aten, founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, a faith-based, academic disaster research center. “It’s also important to recognize that the increased mental health stress, coupled with the fact that many have largely stayed home, has also led to a possible increase in not just relational problems but even interpersonal and domestic abuse.”

Three months of quarantine would cause intimate partner violence to increase by 20% worldwide, according to a study done by the United Nations Population Fund. This would worsen during a second wave of the coronavirus, Aten said.

“We are going to see mental health struggles increase, especially if there is a second wave,” he said. “It is most probable that another and even bigger wave of emotional problems will follow.”

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