Selected Podcast
COVID's Impact on our Mental Health
Dr. Monique Winnett discusses the prevalence of anxiety and depression and trends throughout covid, contributing factors to rising rates, and ways in which individuals can help themselves and others.
Featuring:
Learn more about Monique Winnett, Psy. D.
Monique Winnett, Psy. D.
Monique Winnett, Psy. D. is a Clinical Psychologist and Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health Services.ÂLearn more about Monique Winnett, Psy. D.
Transcription:
Prakash Chandran (Host): This St. Joseph's Health COVID-19 podcast was recorded on December 14th, 2021. Approximately 40% of the population is showing symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is due in large part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevalence of anxiety and depression and trends throughout COVID have been troubling. So, today we'll be discussing the contributing factors to these rising rates and the ways in which individuals can help themselves and others. We're going to learn more about it today with Dr. Monique Winnett, Clinical Psychologist and Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health Services for St. Joseph's Health.
Intro: St. Joseph's Health presents another edition of its podcast, St. Joseph's Health MedCast.
Host: This is St. Joseph's Health MedCast, the podcast from St. Joseph's Health. My name is Prakash Chandran. So Dr. Winnett, it's really great to have you here today. Thank you so much for being here. You know, one of the things that I said up at the top was that 40% of the population is showing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Now that's a really staggering number. So, I guess my first question is how do we know that all of that depression and anxiety is related to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Monique Winnett Psy. D. (Guest): Sure. That's a great question. You know, it's hard for us to be 100% certain what leads to certain symptoms at certain times. But what we do know is that the marked jump in rates of patients or just people in the general population reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression correlated very strongly with the start of the pandemic and especially with the start of people really needing to stay at home and isolate. Prior to that, we were looking at average rates of people saying that they had symptoms or of depression or anxiety in maybe between 30 and 35% of the population. And once you hit about March and April of 2020, we saw those rates climb up to around 40%.
Host: Yeah, that makes sense. And it's something that I feel like people are aware of, but would you say that there is a good deal of public awareness around this? And is it even across all demographics?
Dr. Winnett: It's really across all demographics. We've seen the most marked increases in young adults, kind of that millennial age gap, as well as college age students, and we're seeing these numbers increased even moreso for some minority groups than we are for others. So, it's definitely across the board. And I don't think that there's too many groups that have been researched that haven't seen jumps in behavioral health symptoms over the last year and a half.
Host: So Dr. Winnett at what would you say the contributing factors that are contributing to this rise?
Dr. Winnett: Sure there's a lot. What we know is that we all have risk and protective factors in our lives on a daily basis. Those risk factors make us more prone for not feeling well, for not being healthy, for experiencing depression or anxiety. And then we also have these core groups of protective factors that usually help balance some of that out and help most of us feel like we're pretty healthy and functional most of the time. What we saw during COVID though, and over the course of the pandemic is a lot of people's risk factors increased. Risk of complications to their health, obviously, risk of contracting COVID-19, increased risks in terms of job loss, increased financial stress; a lot of those things increased over the course of the pandemic. And then a lot of the things that we see as being protective factors like working outside of the home, feeling productive and accomplished, having interpersonal relationships and socialization and being able to get out and enjoy the things that bring us joy and bring us pleasure, was something that we did not have as much of over the pandemic. And so that balance, I think for a lot of people of their risk and protective factors shifted in a way that wasn't quite so healthy.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. We just all had to get used to a new way of living and it affected so many people in different ways. So, just speaking, I guess, to some of the causes of these factors, how do you go about recognizing the symptoms of anxiety and depression?
Dr. Winnett: That's a great question, because I think that there's still as much as there's been increased communication about these conditions over the last couple of years, I think there's still a whole lot of stigma and misperception around what people expect. Lots of times, it's not just being too afraid to go out and do something or crying uncontrollably. More often, what we see for people is just little changes in their personality. People not feeling like themselves, sleeping too much, or having a really hard time sleeping, changes in appetite, not feeling motivated to do the things that you used to be motivated to do, not enjoying the things that you used to enjoy doing and just generally kind of a sense of not quite feeling like yourself and not quite feeling like you're living your life to the same extent that you would have been prior to having some of these symptoms.
Host: Yeah. And you know, so many people that go through this, even myself included, even if we're recognizing that we may not be feeling a hundred percent ourselves, oftentimes we just try to deal with it. Like we say that everyone else is going through it. There's no reason for me to cause any sort of fuss. So, it's better just to live life and not do anything. What would you say to people that have that kind of self-talk?
Dr. Winnett: I think that self-talk is completely typical. I think in some ways it's really healthy, right? That I'm going to try to push through and make the best of this and realize I'm not the only one in this situation. And there's a lot of ways in which that drive to keep working through something can be a healthy and productive thing.
What we also know is that there's a lot of resources and supports out there. There's a lot of good tools, in terms of healthcare, in terms of therapy, in terms of medication, in terms of organizations that really can help make that not quite as much of a daily struggle for people. That people should be able to go through their daily life for the most part, without it feeling like a huge burden to get up and do the things that you need to do during the course of the day. So, that awareness is fantastic. The drive to push through it is great, but really also being gentle enough with yourself to be able to acknowledge when maybe some extra supports might really be beneficial.
Host: Yeah. And so when might you recommend that people go to look for that extra support? Like what exactly does that look like?
Dr. Winnett: It's typical for people to have bad days, right. Or sometimes even bad weeks. I usually tell my patients that if you're not having those bad days, something's wrong, cause you're not human. So there's no need to be, you know, very concerned or very alarmed if you have a day or two, that you're not quite feeling like yourself, but if it's starting to become a trend, if you notice that for days on end, for a couple of weeks, it's harder for you to get up and do the things that you used to do, or that you're really having to push yourself through it without much enjoyment, without much zest for life, that might be a little red flag for you that it might be time to get some extra help. And certainly if other people around you start commenting or noticing that your personality seems a little bit different or that you're not taking care of things in the way that you normally would, or if your physical health starts to really be impacted for a period of a couple of weeks or more, I would say that it's worth getting another opinion and talking to your doctor.
Host: So let's expand a little bit more on that. If someone is experiencing some of these symptoms or they have a loved one that is, what resources would you point them to?
Dr. Winnett: Sure. I usually say, if you have a primary care provider that you have a good relationship with, if you have that family practitioner or that pediatrician, they are a really good starting point. They're going to have, in most cases, some tools and knowledge base to be able to help you tease out what might be typical in light of the fact that we have all been living in unprecedented times, and most people are having some sort of reaction as opposed to what might be a time to start seeking a little bit of extra support.
So certainly that's a great starting point for you or to encourage a loved one to do is to schedule an appointment with your primary care provider and talk with them about some of what you've noticed and some of what your symptoms are. There's a lot of great resources online that people can, can utilize and can contact to help get them some additional supports and to help give them some more information.
The American Psychological Association is a great resource. There's a lot on the CDC website that can really help people understand more about some of these behavioral health conditions, as well as just normatively what impact COVID is having on people. Those can be great resources and starting points.
And I also usually recommend for people that if you think some therapy or meeting with a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse practitioner might be helpful for you; sometimes the easiest route is just to call your insurance company and see who in your area they participate with. And one of the nice things I think for some people that's come out of COVID is a lot of times we can even access these services now via Telemedicine.
So people don't always need to take the same commute or the same chunk of time or the time out of their work day, to be able to engage with some of these services. A lot of it's much more at our fingertips now than it ever has been.
Host: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Another question that I wanted to ask you is, you know, they say that the people that are closest to you sometimes can recognize things that you may not even see in yourself. You know, I even have a friend, for example, a very close friend that is losing weight, that just hasn't been himself for awhile. And I've been wanting to have a conversation with him about it. How might you recommend that people that have loved ones that are suffering, how might you recommend that they have a conversation with them in a non-intrusive way?
Dr. Winnett: Yeah, that's a great question because it's not easy, right? That's a really hard thing to, to tread lightly on. And I think that sometimes those conversations, a lot of the times those conversations go un-had, because we're worried about hurting somebody or offending somebody or causing them to be defensive.
And while certainly, I cannot guarantee that will not be someone's reaction, what we also find a lot of the times is that for someone else to see in us the things that we've already been feeling and experiencing can be extremely validating and supportive. So I think one is just to keep in mind that this is not necessarily a critique that you're giving someone else, that it's not necessarily going to hurt them.
They might actually feel really good to know that you also are seeing that in them, that they're not imagining this or making this up in their head, that they really are seeming different and acting different might be really validating. And I think sometimes the best way to go about this is by clearly, you know, voicing this from a place of concern, by being able to say I just want to talk to you for a couple minutes, because I care about you so much. And then also giving some specific examples for people sometimes. You know, I noticed that you have not been eating anywhere near as much as you used to. I noticed it's really hard for you to get out of bed in the morning.
I'm not seeing you laugh or joke as much as you used to. Sometimes those specific examples for people can help them gain a little bit more insight. And sometimes that's also harder for us to rebute or to become defensive about because they are more concrete as opposed to just saying you seem like you're in a bad mood.
Host: That's really good advice. And I think the one takeaway there is that we are not alone, right? There are so many people that have had to try to adjust to this new way of life and it has not been easy. And, you know, one of the things that I wanted to ask is there still seems to be a stigma around going to get help, especially when it's professional help, whether that be from a psychologist, like someone like yourself or a psychiatrist. Is that something that you're seeing as well?
Dr. Winnett: It definitely still persists. I think there are certain subgroups of the overall population, whether it be culturally, sometimes with age where we notice some of that a little bit more. But that being said there, you know, over the last year or two, there's been a lot more public figures that have come out and been open about their own struggles with mental health. And I think that has reduced some of the stigma. I think that's allowed some people to feel more comfortable seeking treatment. I think it's just important for people to realize that it's very typical for people to struggle with these things. It's not fun. And it's not easy, but most of these conditions are really treatable when given the correct forms of management for dealing with some of this.
So I think sometimes people get fearful that by seeking treatment makes them what in their minds, they perceive as being some sort of crazy or that they're going to need some sort of long-term care or that they're going to wind up hospitalized. For the large majority of our patients, especially when we're talking about symptoms of depression and anxiety, engaging in some short-term therapy for the matter of a couple months, maybe up to a year, sometimes in combination with a low dose of medication gets people feeling like themselves again and to the extent where they don't really need those services any longer.
Host: Yeah, think that's really well said. So last question, before we close here and something, I always like to ask. Given all of your experience as a clinical psychologist and everything that you know, what is one thing that you just know to be true that you wish more people knew before they came to see you?
Dr. Winnett: That's a great question. I think it just goes back to some of what I just said that, I think sometimes it's hard for people to acknowledge that they might meet criteria for some of these conditions because they think it is a life sentence. Right? I think the idea of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety or PTSD or bipolar can be so scary for people that they really avoid it a long time, they avoid seeking treatment. They avoid seeking support, but what's important for people to know, like I said, one is a lot of these conditions are very common and two, a lot of them are really treatable. So I really wish people came in with more hope and more confidence in themselves and in the medical treatment that we're now able to provide that a lot of this, we can get you to a much better place. And sometimes it doesn't take that long for you to get there.
Host: Dr. Winnett, I think that is the perfect place to end. Thank you so much for educating us today.
Dr. Winnett: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Host: That's Dr. Monique Winnett, Clinical Psychologist and Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health services for St. Joseph Health. For more information, please visit cnyhealth.com, select features at the top of the page and click meet your doctor and find Dr. Monique Winnett on the features page. You can also call, contact community services at (315) 251-0600. That is the hotline for confidential 24/7 counseling, suicide prevention and crisis counseling. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This has been St. Joseph's Health MedCast from St. Joseph's Health. My name is Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much. And we'll talk next time.
Prakash Chandran (Host): This St. Joseph's Health COVID-19 podcast was recorded on December 14th, 2021. Approximately 40% of the population is showing symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is due in large part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevalence of anxiety and depression and trends throughout COVID have been troubling. So, today we'll be discussing the contributing factors to these rising rates and the ways in which individuals can help themselves and others. We're going to learn more about it today with Dr. Monique Winnett, Clinical Psychologist and Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health Services for St. Joseph's Health.
Intro: St. Joseph's Health presents another edition of its podcast, St. Joseph's Health MedCast.
Host: This is St. Joseph's Health MedCast, the podcast from St. Joseph's Health. My name is Prakash Chandran. So Dr. Winnett, it's really great to have you here today. Thank you so much for being here. You know, one of the things that I said up at the top was that 40% of the population is showing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Now that's a really staggering number. So, I guess my first question is how do we know that all of that depression and anxiety is related to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Monique Winnett Psy. D. (Guest): Sure. That's a great question. You know, it's hard for us to be 100% certain what leads to certain symptoms at certain times. But what we do know is that the marked jump in rates of patients or just people in the general population reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression correlated very strongly with the start of the pandemic and especially with the start of people really needing to stay at home and isolate. Prior to that, we were looking at average rates of people saying that they had symptoms or of depression or anxiety in maybe between 30 and 35% of the population. And once you hit about March and April of 2020, we saw those rates climb up to around 40%.
Host: Yeah, that makes sense. And it's something that I feel like people are aware of, but would you say that there is a good deal of public awareness around this? And is it even across all demographics?
Dr. Winnett: It's really across all demographics. We've seen the most marked increases in young adults, kind of that millennial age gap, as well as college age students, and we're seeing these numbers increased even moreso for some minority groups than we are for others. So, it's definitely across the board. And I don't think that there's too many groups that have been researched that haven't seen jumps in behavioral health symptoms over the last year and a half.
Host: So Dr. Winnett at what would you say the contributing factors that are contributing to this rise?
Dr. Winnett: Sure there's a lot. What we know is that we all have risk and protective factors in our lives on a daily basis. Those risk factors make us more prone for not feeling well, for not being healthy, for experiencing depression or anxiety. And then we also have these core groups of protective factors that usually help balance some of that out and help most of us feel like we're pretty healthy and functional most of the time. What we saw during COVID though, and over the course of the pandemic is a lot of people's risk factors increased. Risk of complications to their health, obviously, risk of contracting COVID-19, increased risks in terms of job loss, increased financial stress; a lot of those things increased over the course of the pandemic. And then a lot of the things that we see as being protective factors like working outside of the home, feeling productive and accomplished, having interpersonal relationships and socialization and being able to get out and enjoy the things that bring us joy and bring us pleasure, was something that we did not have as much of over the pandemic. And so that balance, I think for a lot of people of their risk and protective factors shifted in a way that wasn't quite so healthy.
Host: Yeah, absolutely. We just all had to get used to a new way of living and it affected so many people in different ways. So, just speaking, I guess, to some of the causes of these factors, how do you go about recognizing the symptoms of anxiety and depression?
Dr. Winnett: That's a great question, because I think that there's still as much as there's been increased communication about these conditions over the last couple of years, I think there's still a whole lot of stigma and misperception around what people expect. Lots of times, it's not just being too afraid to go out and do something or crying uncontrollably. More often, what we see for people is just little changes in their personality. People not feeling like themselves, sleeping too much, or having a really hard time sleeping, changes in appetite, not feeling motivated to do the things that you used to be motivated to do, not enjoying the things that you used to enjoy doing and just generally kind of a sense of not quite feeling like yourself and not quite feeling like you're living your life to the same extent that you would have been prior to having some of these symptoms.
Host: Yeah. And you know, so many people that go through this, even myself included, even if we're recognizing that we may not be feeling a hundred percent ourselves, oftentimes we just try to deal with it. Like we say that everyone else is going through it. There's no reason for me to cause any sort of fuss. So, it's better just to live life and not do anything. What would you say to people that have that kind of self-talk?
Dr. Winnett: I think that self-talk is completely typical. I think in some ways it's really healthy, right? That I'm going to try to push through and make the best of this and realize I'm not the only one in this situation. And there's a lot of ways in which that drive to keep working through something can be a healthy and productive thing.
What we also know is that there's a lot of resources and supports out there. There's a lot of good tools, in terms of healthcare, in terms of therapy, in terms of medication, in terms of organizations that really can help make that not quite as much of a daily struggle for people. That people should be able to go through their daily life for the most part, without it feeling like a huge burden to get up and do the things that you need to do during the course of the day. So, that awareness is fantastic. The drive to push through it is great, but really also being gentle enough with yourself to be able to acknowledge when maybe some extra supports might really be beneficial.
Host: Yeah. And so when might you recommend that people go to look for that extra support? Like what exactly does that look like?
Dr. Winnett: It's typical for people to have bad days, right. Or sometimes even bad weeks. I usually tell my patients that if you're not having those bad days, something's wrong, cause you're not human. So there's no need to be, you know, very concerned or very alarmed if you have a day or two, that you're not quite feeling like yourself, but if it's starting to become a trend, if you notice that for days on end, for a couple of weeks, it's harder for you to get up and do the things that you used to do, or that you're really having to push yourself through it without much enjoyment, without much zest for life, that might be a little red flag for you that it might be time to get some extra help. And certainly if other people around you start commenting or noticing that your personality seems a little bit different or that you're not taking care of things in the way that you normally would, or if your physical health starts to really be impacted for a period of a couple of weeks or more, I would say that it's worth getting another opinion and talking to your doctor.
Host: So let's expand a little bit more on that. If someone is experiencing some of these symptoms or they have a loved one that is, what resources would you point them to?
Dr. Winnett: Sure. I usually say, if you have a primary care provider that you have a good relationship with, if you have that family practitioner or that pediatrician, they are a really good starting point. They're going to have, in most cases, some tools and knowledge base to be able to help you tease out what might be typical in light of the fact that we have all been living in unprecedented times, and most people are having some sort of reaction as opposed to what might be a time to start seeking a little bit of extra support.
So certainly that's a great starting point for you or to encourage a loved one to do is to schedule an appointment with your primary care provider and talk with them about some of what you've noticed and some of what your symptoms are. There's a lot of great resources online that people can, can utilize and can contact to help get them some additional supports and to help give them some more information.
The American Psychological Association is a great resource. There's a lot on the CDC website that can really help people understand more about some of these behavioral health conditions, as well as just normatively what impact COVID is having on people. Those can be great resources and starting points.
And I also usually recommend for people that if you think some therapy or meeting with a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse practitioner might be helpful for you; sometimes the easiest route is just to call your insurance company and see who in your area they participate with. And one of the nice things I think for some people that's come out of COVID is a lot of times we can even access these services now via Telemedicine.
So people don't always need to take the same commute or the same chunk of time or the time out of their work day, to be able to engage with some of these services. A lot of it's much more at our fingertips now than it ever has been.
Host: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Another question that I wanted to ask you is, you know, they say that the people that are closest to you sometimes can recognize things that you may not even see in yourself. You know, I even have a friend, for example, a very close friend that is losing weight, that just hasn't been himself for awhile. And I've been wanting to have a conversation with him about it. How might you recommend that people that have loved ones that are suffering, how might you recommend that they have a conversation with them in a non-intrusive way?
Dr. Winnett: Yeah, that's a great question because it's not easy, right? That's a really hard thing to, to tread lightly on. And I think that sometimes those conversations, a lot of the times those conversations go un-had, because we're worried about hurting somebody or offending somebody or causing them to be defensive.
And while certainly, I cannot guarantee that will not be someone's reaction, what we also find a lot of the times is that for someone else to see in us the things that we've already been feeling and experiencing can be extremely validating and supportive. So I think one is just to keep in mind that this is not necessarily a critique that you're giving someone else, that it's not necessarily going to hurt them.
They might actually feel really good to know that you also are seeing that in them, that they're not imagining this or making this up in their head, that they really are seeming different and acting different might be really validating. And I think sometimes the best way to go about this is by clearly, you know, voicing this from a place of concern, by being able to say I just want to talk to you for a couple minutes, because I care about you so much. And then also giving some specific examples for people sometimes. You know, I noticed that you have not been eating anywhere near as much as you used to. I noticed it's really hard for you to get out of bed in the morning.
I'm not seeing you laugh or joke as much as you used to. Sometimes those specific examples for people can help them gain a little bit more insight. And sometimes that's also harder for us to rebute or to become defensive about because they are more concrete as opposed to just saying you seem like you're in a bad mood.
Host: That's really good advice. And I think the one takeaway there is that we are not alone, right? There are so many people that have had to try to adjust to this new way of life and it has not been easy. And, you know, one of the things that I wanted to ask is there still seems to be a stigma around going to get help, especially when it's professional help, whether that be from a psychologist, like someone like yourself or a psychiatrist. Is that something that you're seeing as well?
Dr. Winnett: It definitely still persists. I think there are certain subgroups of the overall population, whether it be culturally, sometimes with age where we notice some of that a little bit more. But that being said there, you know, over the last year or two, there's been a lot more public figures that have come out and been open about their own struggles with mental health. And I think that has reduced some of the stigma. I think that's allowed some people to feel more comfortable seeking treatment. I think it's just important for people to realize that it's very typical for people to struggle with these things. It's not fun. And it's not easy, but most of these conditions are really treatable when given the correct forms of management for dealing with some of this.
So I think sometimes people get fearful that by seeking treatment makes them what in their minds, they perceive as being some sort of crazy or that they're going to need some sort of long-term care or that they're going to wind up hospitalized. For the large majority of our patients, especially when we're talking about symptoms of depression and anxiety, engaging in some short-term therapy for the matter of a couple months, maybe up to a year, sometimes in combination with a low dose of medication gets people feeling like themselves again and to the extent where they don't really need those services any longer.
Host: Yeah, think that's really well said. So last question, before we close here and something, I always like to ask. Given all of your experience as a clinical psychologist and everything that you know, what is one thing that you just know to be true that you wish more people knew before they came to see you?
Dr. Winnett: That's a great question. I think it just goes back to some of what I just said that, I think sometimes it's hard for people to acknowledge that they might meet criteria for some of these conditions because they think it is a life sentence. Right? I think the idea of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety or PTSD or bipolar can be so scary for people that they really avoid it a long time, they avoid seeking treatment. They avoid seeking support, but what's important for people to know, like I said, one is a lot of these conditions are very common and two, a lot of them are really treatable. So I really wish people came in with more hope and more confidence in themselves and in the medical treatment that we're now able to provide that a lot of this, we can get you to a much better place. And sometimes it doesn't take that long for you to get there.
Host: Dr. Winnett, I think that is the perfect place to end. Thank you so much for educating us today.
Dr. Winnett: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Host: That's Dr. Monique Winnett, Clinical Psychologist and Coordinator of Integrated Behavioral Health services for St. Joseph Health. For more information, please visit cnyhealth.com, select features at the top of the page and click meet your doctor and find Dr. Monique Winnett on the features page. You can also call, contact community services at (315) 251-0600. That is the hotline for confidential 24/7 counseling, suicide prevention and crisis counseling. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This has been St. Joseph's Health MedCast from St. Joseph's Health. My name is Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much. And we'll talk next time.