In march 2020, we went into a worldwide pandemic. Schools shut down and we Transitioned to online learning. I believe that Covid has affected so much and especially our mental health. In fact, research says that “ Global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%”!

 A high level of stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic comes from people’s being worried about money, housing, etc… from jobs being shut down or people being laid off. 54% of people when polled by Kaiser in 2020, said the pandemic negatively affected their mental health. Depression also increased as people lost their family and loved ones to Covid and it also increased because people lost contact with others during the shutdown. 

One person that I interviewed was Annika Reich, a senior at Pitman High school. I first asked her, “Do you think that Covid affects mental health? If so then how?” Reich said, “Yes, Covid absolutely affected mental health.” She talked about how so many people rely on others in their everyday life, and how Covid separated friends and isolated people. 

I also asked Reich, ”Do you think Covid affects your mental health, if so how?” She said the Covid definitely affected her mental health because she was “unable to see her friends” which was really a difficult thing for her. She also said it was hard to deal with her grades because she doesn’t do well with learning at home. “It felt like an endless cycle of feeling alone cooped up in my room all day,” said Reich. 

The next person I interviewed was Daniela Valencia, a senior at Pitman High school. I asked Valencia the same questions as I asked Reich. Valencia said that she thinks Covid definitely affects mental health in people. “We felt locked down, there wasn’t enough space to breathe.” She also said that people work and do better when they are around other people. I also asked “Do you think Covid affects your mental health, if so how?” Valencia said “Yes, seeing my friends is like my therapy and it helped with my mental health, so when I couldn’t see them it was hard on me and hard to communicate.” 

Overall I think a lot of people all over the world and online would say that Covid played a big role in affecting Mental health in negative ways. Lots of people felt alone and locked up all day in their houses. Most of us are friends and going out as a way to feel better and be happy but we couldn’t do that so it had an impact on us.