COVID and Anxiety
COVID and Anxiety
Please be sure to refer to the assigned articles in the readings as you complete this discussion.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a very stressful year for our global population. Not only were we concerned about our health and contracting the virus, but there was a ripple effect on several aspects of life that impacted our general stress levels. There was increased uncertainty and fear about health, but also increased stressors due to being quarantined and being in social isolation, children being removed from the school environment and parents becoming their educators, and fears of job loss or the economic state of the nation.
How do you feel the COVID pandemic affected the prevalence of anxiety-related disorders?
What were some of the symptoms that you experienced or observed in others that indicated the increase in stress and anxiety?
What are some of the ways that you or others that you know coped with increased anxiety from the COVID experience?
Unit 4 Discussion Abnormal Psychology
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Covid and Anxiety
2020 was the hardest year for most people due to the COVID pandemic. When the disease was said to be a global threat during this year, there were increased cases of anxiety-related disorders and depression, which increased by twenty-five percent (WHO, 2022). The essay will discuss how the pandemic affected the prevalence of anxiety disorders, symptoms that indicated stress and anxiety, and coping mechanisms used to deal with the anxiety.
The prevalence of anxiety disorders increased significantly, largely due to fear and uncertainty. It was like living each day, not knowing whether one would still be alive tomorrow. Additionally, mandatory isolation was a large stressor since people no longer had access to people they could talk to or could not go to leisure parks or entertainment joints (WHO, 2022). Further, most people stopped going to work and had to deal with financial worries and what their tomorrow held for them, having inadequate savings. According to WHO (2022), all these factors increased the prevalence of anxiety disorders to the extent that psychosocial support was...