3 ms·

To add to the anecdata, I have friends who are therapists as well, and they're approaching burnout. The lockdowns and media hysteria are making latent, managabl

To add to the anecdata, I have friends who are therapists as well, and they're approaching burnout. The lockdowns and media hysteria are making latent, managable issues unmanageable. I would wonder if the lack of privacy for many people in vulnerable state is what keeps them from acting. Given the viral property of suicides[1] in communities, a sudden mean reversion on those stats concievably risks turning into a cascade effect as well, which would manifest just on our way out of this mess. [1] https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse/what-does-suicide-contagion-mean/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abus...

whimsicalism 6y ago
Based on my looking at disposable cash flows available to the average American, I am curious if the pandemic assistance is perhaps allowing people to treat latent issues that they wouldn't have before - due to higher opportunity cost of consumption and also less cash flow.
- julianlam 6y ago
  My gut assumption would be that seeing a therapist virtually is now normalised due to COVID. Prior to 2020, my insurer would've laughed me off if I tried to claim a psychotherapy visit that wasn't done in person. Now it seems they're bending over backwards to let me know they are allowing it. Something as small as physically going to an appointment is enough of a barrier to access, sometimes.
mercer 6y ago
To add more anecdata, I've heard of an increase in people seeking help for addiction issues (alcohol, weed). I imagine many of them perhaps were problematic in their use already, but the pandemic made things bad enough to seek help.
pmiller2 6y ago
My guess would be that many of those excess overdoses are suicides.
foobarian 6y ago
I also know some therapists, and one surprising thing I learned is that they are very lonely - their jobs are literally to have face-time with customers, so there is zero time left for hanging out with coworkers; something that I have a lot of in the software sector. I guess director level managers may have a similar problem but I am not there yet :)

whimsicalism 6y ago

Based on my looking at disposable cash flows available to the average American, I am curious if the pandemic assistance is perhaps allowing people to treat latent issues that they wouldn't have before - due to higher opportunity cost of consumption and also less cash flow.

julianlam 6y ago
My gut assumption would be that seeing a therapist virtually is now normalised due to COVID. Prior to 2020, my insurer would've laughed me off if I tried to claim a psychotherapy visit that wasn't done in person. Now it seems they're bending over backwards to let me know they are allowing it. Something as small as physically going to an appointment is enough of a barrier to access, sometimes.

mercer 6y ago

To add more anecdata, I've heard of an increase in people seeking help for addiction issues (alcohol, weed). I imagine many of them perhaps were problematic in their use already, but the pandemic made things bad enough to seek help.

pmiller2 6y ago

My guess would be that many of those excess overdoses are suicides.

foobarian 6y ago

I also know some therapists, and one surprising thing I learned is that they are very lonely - their jobs are literally to have face-time with customers, so there is zero time left for hanging out with coworkers; something that I have a lot of in the software sector. I guess director level managers may have a similar problem but I am not there yet :)