Pandemic depression will worsen seasonal depression

Posted December 2020

By Elizabeth Philbrick

Staff Editor

After nine months of staying home during the pandemic, isolation depression is only going to be worse as winter begins.

Throughout the eight months before winter, citizens experienced isolation, worsened troubled relationships, the anxiety caused by the pandemic, and soaring stress levels. Some even turned to unhealthy coping strategies, like drinking too much or overeating junk food in an attempt to deal with stress.

In the U.S., nearly half the respondents to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll felt the pandemic was harming their mental health. The stress of isolation, the worry about health, jobs, and money, and the intense feelings of loss that many Americans are experiencing can trigger both anxiety and depression.

This pandemic is expected to boost the depression syndrome known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as Seasonal Depression or SAD. An estimated 5 percent of the population has the full-blown SAD syndrome and three times as many citizens have a milder version of SAD.

“I think we’re in for a particularly difficult winter for people with SAD, who seem to be especially susceptible to stressful life events,” Kelly Rohan, professor of psychological science at the University of Vermont, stated. “I saw evidence of this last March among the 26 people with SAD we were studying when the pandemic shut everything down. We were interviewing them weekly about their mood and everyone’s score shot up dramatically.”