Chronic illness: Pandemic stress

There are risk factors to being chronically ill in a high-stress environment and being isolated during the pandemic life. COVID19 brings with it unique external stressors we may have a difficult time adjusting to like we do other stressors.

Mental illness

Anxiety:

Even before COVID-19 hit its shores, the U.S. was a clinically anxious place.According to the National Institute of Mental Health, just over 19% of all American adults will experience at least one anxiety disorder over any 12-month period. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the mental-health professionals’ bible,lists a dozen different anxiety and related conditions. Not all are likely to be especially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but a number are, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, acute stress disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Given that many around the world are being told by public health and political officials not…