When turning on the news or opening Twitter to simply stay informed can leave you trapped in a maelstrom of depression and despair, it may be reasonable to align with the majority and conclude that we, the world, and our minds are in crisis. I personally know several people who have taken extensive or even permanent breaks from watching and reading the news due to how regularly pessimistic it has become. The COVID-19 pandemic is largely responsible for the uptick in mental health issues. Excessive social media use, the unstable state of world affairs, and in the United States specifically, traumatic national events like mass shootings, police killings, racially motivated lynchings and the spiking rate of hate crimes have all contributed to the dismal status of our collective mental wellbeing. Whether it was claiming lives, inspiring fear and anxiety regarding what the future holds, or putting people out of work, the pandemic made an already growing issue much, much worse. Last year, a poll conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that ninety percent of American adults feel that the country is mired in a mental health crisis, and the World Health Organization reported that the pandemic was responsible for a twenty-five percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression across the globe. This May, as was the case with the last three, is an even better time than usual to check in on the mental health of those we hold dear due to the devastating emotional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being that the month of May is both Mental Health Awareness Month and the lesser-known National Teen Self-Esteem Month, there’s perhaps no better time to pay special attention to the mental health situations of ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and our youth.

Hardly mindly endlessly