From the New York Times:
Social isolation, economic stress, loss of loved ones and other struggles during the pandemic have contributed to rising mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
But can having Covid itself increase the risk of developing mental health problems? A large new study suggests it can.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal The BMJ, analyzed records of nearly 154,000 Covid patients in the Veterans Health Administration system and compared their experience in the year after they recovered from their initial infection with that of a similar group of people who did not contract the virus.
The study included only patients who had no mental health diagnoses or treatment for at least two years before becoming infected with the coronavirus, allowing researchers to focus on psychiatric diagnoses and treatment that occurred after coronavirus infection.
People who had Covid were 39 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression and 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety over the months following infection than people without Covid during the same period, the study found. Covid patients were 38 percent more likely to be diagnosed with stress and adjustment disorders and 41 percent more likely to be diagnosed with sleep disorders than uninfected people. ...
You might say this won't have much impact on Social Security since there aren't many people found disabled due to depression and anxiety much less stress and adjustment disorders but I think that would be naive. Depression, anxiety, stress and adjustment disorders are bad for a person's physical health. These conditions also make people less able to cope with their physical ailments. There are many people who are still tenuously holding on to employment despite serious physical health problems. Add in depression and anxiety and those health problems can become too much to bear while still working. There are many people on the borderline who are still working but who can be easily tipped in the other direction. There's also the question of Covid's effects on those who already suffered significant mental illness. What effects will Covid have on people with bipolar disorder, for instance? I'm sure somebody is studying that question but I haven't heard of any research reports yet.
I'm getting almost no calls from people with post-Covid syndrome but we'll have to see whether Covid is a significant indirect factor in producing disability.
7 comments:
I'm looking for another job due to the agency's lack of resources and staffing and the anxiety and depression it's caused over the last several years working for SSA. I've suffered from depression and bi-polar disorder for over 20 years (prior to working at SSA). I've tried to hold on but its' just not worth it any longer.
SSA is not a good place to work. The pandemic made it exponentially worse. I definitely understand. I know people on here make fun of us employees at the agency saying we're worthless and don't do our jobs but for me anyway, that couldn't be further from the truth. I've sacrificed my own health and well being over the last few years only to have it get worse and worse.
I wouldn't wish working in a FO on my worst enemy.
10:07 Perhaps consider asking for a transfer to a PSC if you live near one. The Claims Specialist job in the PSC is much less stressful than the FO jobs. Also we will continue to get 4 telework days per week in the PSC.
As for COVID causing anxiety and depression I believe it. I know a couple of people who caught it before there were vaccines and they still have not recovered physically, more than a year later. That has to take a toll mentally as well.
This blog: Covid has significant ramifications on people that could cause disabling respiratory, cognitive, or mental health conditions that could cause a person to be disabled.
Also this blog: SSA employees need to shut up, quit whining, and get back in the office to interact face-to-face with as many people as possible because getting sick with Covid isn’t that bad and no more dangerous than driving a car to work.
@12:15 you forgot:
People on this blog: the rest of the world is back to work in the offices and if you don’t like returning then find a new job.
Also people on this blog: They don’t pay us enough in fees and should raise it and also we don’t like video hearings even though many judicial circuits are fully using video, however, since we don’t like it the agency should change so we don’t have to go somewhere else.
Hey @1:27, lots of us want phone and video hearings to stay. You'll get zero pushback from my office on them as long as they're done in a way that is fair to the claimant.
Also, enough taking jabs at us for wanting there to be a raise to the fee cap. You've had many, many raises to your pay since the last time our fees were raised 13 years ago. Unless your goal is to make sure claimants aren't represented, there is absolutely no reason to oppose raising the fee cap. Chances are, though, you don't see the value we bring.
And look at me, arguing with an ornery, anonymous SSA employee on a blog. Covid really has screwed most of us up :)
@ 10:07 I have been battling the SSA since 2006. Not once can I say personally have had a horrible experience with the SSA personnel unless you consider some of the few ALJs I have had it out with.
Technically, ALJs are paid by the SSA but not really SSA employees. In fact, ALJs are supposed to be a check on all the bureaucratic nonsense from the SSA coming from D.C.
ALJs trust me vent to me about all the changes especially the old timers. They are I believe being systematically tried to put out to pasture. It happens to all older employees.
Keep your head. Most honorable SSD/SSI should not blame the actual SSA employees for all this SSA nonsense. The executive branch and the Congress need to get involved. It simply just entails hiring more SSA employees and more ALJs. They have the money. Somehow, the SSA won't spend it.
Honestly, I believe someone in the OMB (Office of Monetary Budget) pulls a lot of the strings. My father i a Ph.D. materials science engineer who worked for the Department of Energy in D.C. from about 1985-2000. My father knows how much of a political nightmare D.C. can be. It is not surprising.
The great thing today is there are many other private jobs to pursue.
"There aren't many people found disabled due to depression and anxiety" Are you serious? You need to move up north. The vast majority of claimants I used to deal with had the exact same diagnosis code, 2960 and 3000, depressed and anxious, over and over again. At least 70% of claimants had that code. You've got it backwards, if you don't have depression or anxiety... you are not getting on disability.
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