Study Claims The Mental-Health Crisis During The Pandemic Was Minimal, People Share The Most Unhinged Things They Did In Response (50 Tweets)

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented time in history. Never before had the world been forced to shut down on such a global scale, requiring education, jobs and countless other events to turn to digital alternatives. Companies were rapidly closing while millions worldwide were dealing with devastating health issues and the loss of loved ones, meanwhile, the rest of us were just trying to figure out how to avoid getting sick. We were faced with an interesting concoction of fear and boredom all at once, and many of us found bizarre ways to channel our energy and anxiety. Thus, we began making some questionable decisions.

As you’ll see on this list, we all found unique ways to cope with the stress of the pandemic. I, for one, began reading a lot at first, but later found myself dying my hair purple and teal and taking three hour long walks per day, just to get out of the house. I became way too invested in the 90 Day Fiancé cinematic universe, and I started experimenting with the most interesting recipes I could find. I simultaneously had way more energy than I knew what to do with and couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed for hours at a time each day. It was an extremely weird time to live through, so it’s understandable for people to have faced more mental health issues than usual during that period. 

However, this study that the BBC recently tweeted promotes the idea that we somehow managed to emerge from the pandemic unscathed, with little to no impact on our mental health. Forget the fact that we were all frantically baking banana bread and sourdough bread at all hours of the night, right? Let’s just ignore how obsessed we all were with Tiger King, too. In Philippa Roxby’s article for the BBC discussing this controversial study, she does acknowledge the fact that, “Other studies suggest the pandemic increased mental distress for particular groups, such as children, young people and parents in poverty.”

So it is a bit misleading to boldly claim that the pandemic had minimal impact on the mental health crisis. Roxby goes on to note that those who were most negatively affected by the pandemic were people who had previously struggled with their mental health, but there are other studies that suggest the pandemic may have been a catalyst for some people’s struggles. An online NHS survey found that, “As many as one in six seven-16-year-olds and one in four 17-19-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder in 2022,” Roxby writes. The number of children in contact with mental-health services also increased by almost 30% between 2020-21 and 2021-22. And in another 2021 survey by Mind, mental-health charity, about one third of adults and young people reported their mental health had significantly declined since March 2020.