The Korean mental health crisis: consequences of COVID-19

An article written for the school newspaper.

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Currently, over 20 percent of Americans experience some form of mental illness, which experts attribute partly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the lockdowns that forced people inside their homes for an extended period of time, rates of depression and anxiety have risen across the world, with more people than ever on anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs like Prozac and other SSRIs.

Korea, too, has felt similar effects of the pandemic at its peak. Though overall rates of suicide have not increased, suicides among parts of the population have risen—especially among teenagers and women. Teenagers are feeling the pressure of workloads returning to pre-pandemic levels, whilst also feeling increased isolation due to an underdeveloped social network during the pandemic. Moreover, many of these students have fewer social skills due to the lack of sufficient interaction for their age during the pandemic, which in turn increases their vulnerability to mental health issues.

Even before COVID-19, however, Korea struggled with high rates of isolation among their teenagers, who were rated to have some of the worst social skills in the world. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem—teenagers are increasingly spending time indoors and on their phones, failing to form the bonds with their community that are essential to finding a necessary support system. As such, teenage depression rates have shot up, and there have recently been several publicized high-profile suicides that have left citizens wondering if the COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame for isolating students and depriving them of a key socialization period in a significant period of their lives.

More specifically, the SIS community, too, has been heavily affected by the pandemic. The current freshmen, for instance, have never once had a fully offline middle school experience—a crucial time for developing adolescents’ social and communicative skills. Now, freshmen have been thrust into a high-pressure environment in which they must adapt to a rigorous curriculum despite having faced more lenient rules throughout the last three years of school. In the meantime, other grades too have had to endure the jarring experience of becoming adjusted to different standards in the midst of high school without as strong of a community as they might have hoped to have.

As a response to declining mental health rates, a large number of doctors have been prescribing meditation to patients. Over 40 percent of patients reported greater levels of stress during the pandemic due to increased isolation or a rapidly changing world, and the current trend seems as if it is here to stay—especially concerning as poor mental health may have a domino effect of harms into the future, negatively affecting all aspects of life for people in the future. After all, mental health is the foundation for taking care of oneself, including physical health and also keeping a rational outlook on the world. Without a solid structure to build upon, people may easily see themselves falling into depression, anxiety, or burnout, the effects of which are only worsened by the increased isolation of a post-COVID-19 society.

And if another pandemic were to unfortunately occur, perhaps it will be time to look into alternate forms of those solutions. In the wake of the rising mental health issue, many are promoting ways to improve mental health. The pandemic’s effects have been inevitable for everyone, and the stigma surrounding therapy must continue to be dissolved so that the world can move past the lingering effects of the lockdown and hopefully buffer the effects of the ongoing serious mental health crisis.

Combating the lingering effects, traditional in-person treatments like therapy have moved online, and doctors have prescribed easy-to-do activities at home like meditation to promote mental health. Other treatments have been effectively used, such as keeping a mood diary or joining community mental health support groups both online and offline to help rebuild a sense of community eradicated by the pandemic as well as a sense of normalcy in a post-lockdown world. While not COVID-19 mental health specific treatments, these general modes of mental self-care are a crucial step for people before diving into more serious forms of action like medication or hospitalization. Furthermore, such self-care methods’ positive impacts can reach beyond just addressing COVID-19 related issues—and instead also be used to combat everyday life to achieve better mental health.

For such treatments to reach everyone on a larger scale and become more effective overall, however, studies show that the stigma regarding mental health issues should be reduced. With past K-pop stars and American celebrities becoming widely applauded for opening up about attending therapy, as well as general acceptance of mental healthcare in general, there have been great strides over the past few decades. But still, this may not be enough to fully combat the issues when the issue is so time-pressing.