Covid-19’s Lasting Effects on Mental Health—for Good and Bad

Teens Face Two Scenarios

Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood”

“There are two possible scenarios for how the pandemic could affect the future mental health of teens. They may have unprecedented levels of depression. They already had high levels going into the pandemic. The earlier someone experiences their first episode of clinical-level depression, the more likely it is depression will reoccur later in life. Or under the principle ‘whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’ teens will gain resilience through the experience of living through the pandemic. If so, levels of depression will plateau or even go down. Which scenario we end up with partially depends on what post-pandemic life looks like. Will this experience make us realize how much we need to be with each other in person? If so, that will mitigate depression. Or, will we stay isolated from each other? If so, depression will likely persist.”

Mental Health Is Treated Like Physical Health

Arthur C. Evans Jr., chief executive of the American Psychological Association and former commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services

“What we have to do is embrace a public health approach to mental health. It’s the most important thing we need to do as a nation. We built hospitals and clinics to treat illness as it happens. We have to build the same kind of infrastructure for mental health. We need more flexible funding so [behavioral health] administrators can spend money other than on psychotherapy and pharmacology. We need to do screenings. We do that for cancer. We can do that for mental health. We need to do educational work. We know some of the correlates of good psychological health, and we should be educating people so they can take more ownership over mental health as they do their physical health. We need to do that in addition to providing more money for services. The goal shouldn’t be managing symptoms but helping to return people to a life in their community.”

Isolation May Become Permanent—to Our Detriment

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, who studies the effects of loneliness and isolation

“I have big concerns about the future that whatever behavior patterns and habits we’re developing now may continue and may continue to have chronic health effects. During the pandemic, we’ve made a lot of adjustments to reduce social contact across pretty much every aspect of life. Some of these may become permanent. We need to think about how the changes we’re making now may lead to less social contact and greater isolation long-term. Humans are a social species. Our brains expect proximity to others and our bodies respond in ways that put us in a heightened state of alert when we have to deal with everything alone. It takes more cognitive effort if you have to solve every single problem, deal with every issue, on your own. By having others around, you can outsource a lot of that energy. There’s also a greater sense of safety and security. When our brain and body are on high alert constantly, that puts wear and tear on our body and over time can lead to these kinds of health issues [such as elevated blood pressure and chronic inflammation].”

The Pool of People at Risk Grows

Joshua Morganstein, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster

“Historically the tail of mental health issues after disasters is a long one. Long after the physical injuries have healed and the buildings are rebuilt, the mental health concerns continue and people continue to experience them. People will develop psychological disorders. For every additional person who develops a psychological disorder during this pandemic, the likelihood of developing a future mental health disorder is increased. So if, say, 2% of the population develops PTSD or depression from this event alone, that’s another 2% of the population that is more likely to develop a recurrence. You’ve created a higher pool of people at greater risk.”

Tech Helps Us Avoid Burnout

Adam Brown, associate professor of psychology at the New School for Social Research

“Even the highest-level executives are starting to feel that when it comes to productivity and quality of work, we need to reimagine what it means to work, and mental health has to be part of the fabric of all of those conversations. We’re all starting to wonder, how can we use technology to support people who live in different places with different abilities and caregiving demands? The models of, let’s just grow as fast as possible, work as hard as possible and burn each other out—people are stepping back and asking, are there new models of working? One thing I hear from younger people is they look up at the executives and say, ‘I don’t necessarily want to be that person.’ We are going to see some really seismic shifts in relation to technology and how we empower people and give them a sense of control and agency to help shape their experiences of work in relation to their well-being. For example, I expect that we will also see greater integration of physiological monitoring and biofeedback through wearable technologies to monitor stress at work. I also imagine companies will increasingly use big data about their staff health to help guide the resources and programming to support well-being and reduce burnout.”

Interviews have been condensed and edited.

Write to Betsy Morris at betsy.morris@wsj.com