According to several recent studies, the psychological impact of the health situation as well as the fact of remaining confined over a long period would have harmful effects on mental health.
Too long confinement is bad for mental health
According to several studies, the confinements have strongly impacted the mental health of all the inhabitants of the planet. Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria, and Perdana University in Malaysia have found that being outside makes you feel happier and therefore to have better mental health. They performed work on 286 adults and measured their levels of happiness over three weeks of confinement.
Published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, the results indicate that people who favored outdoor activities as much as possible had a more positive outlook and had a high level of happiness. Conversely, those who spent all of their time in front of screens had a lower level of happiness and a greater sense of loneliness.
” Our results are important in this context because they show that being able to spend time outdoors in conditions of confinement has a beneficial impact on psychological well-being. Being outdoors offers opportunities to escape the stress of being confined to home, to maintain social relationships with others, and to be physically active; what can improve mental health »State the authors of this study.
The health crisis, an aggravating factor of mental illnesses
For Lena Ulrich, a 37-year-old resident living in Cologne (Germany), the health crisis was particularly trying. For 15 years, she fought against depression and the pandemic turned her fight upside down: “ I had structured and organized my life in such a way that it worked pretty well for me (…) everything collapsed relatively quickly … and I found myself in a fairly strong and prolonged depressive episode “.
The existing psychiatric disorders worsened with the health situation. According to a survey by the health insurance company Pronova BKK, 75% of 154 psychiatrists and psychotherapists believe that there will be an increase in cases of mental illness during the next 12 months. The German Depression Support Foundation (DDH) points out that people with depression experience twice as much stress as the average population. Half of them had restricted access to treatment.
According to Dietrich Munz, head of the German Chamber of Psychotherapists, help centers such as outpatient psychiatric clinics, counseling centers and suicide prevention services have seen the demand for help increase sharply. ” There is now a host of studies showing that mental stress caused by restrictive measures can also lead to mental illness. “.
” Humans are social beings. This means that we are looking for and need interpersonal exchanges, whether it is small conversations at work or confidences with his friends. “. However, he also adds that too much promiscuity ” can also cause psychological stress »Explains Mr. Munz, specifying that« reducing your interaction exclusively with family is difficult if there are too few opportunities to isolate yourself “.
