A new report is showing that 70% of all parents have felt mentally oppressed during the pandemic. COVID-19 brought a lot of changes to parenting, and they were changes that not a lot of parents ever thought would happen. Parents had to navigate working from home, helping their children with remote learning, and dealing with a lot of “cabin fever” being stuck inside with nowhere to release energy or get a change of scenery. The mental health of children and youth has been affected, but the mental health of parents has to be taken into account.
According to Masslive, a new study is showing that parents and adult caregivers have been reporting mental health problems during the pandemic, and this needs to be addressed. The study was completed by the CDC and their report can be read in full here.
The study found that nearly 70% of adult caregivers have reported that they are feeling symptoms of anxiety, depression, trauma/stress-related disorders, and suicidal thoughts. It also found that parents were five times more likely to report symptoms of mental health problems when compared to other adults throughout the pandemic.
Parents and medical experts have spent a lot of their energy focusing on children and their mental health throughout the pandemic; could it be possible that their own mental health has been overlooked?
It is not uncommon for parents to put the health and wellbeing of their children first. The survey looked at over 2,300 parents/caregivers and almost 85% of them had experienced one or more symptoms of mental health problems. Not only that, but half of them had reported suicidal thoughts at one point. If someone is both a parent and a caregiver, their risk was 8 times higher.
The end of the pandemic seems insight for a lot of parents, as vaccines continue to be available, but we may end this pandemic with another one of a different kind. Attention may need to be given to parents and helping them return to a healthy state of mind and repair some of the trauma this last year has caused.
Worrying about finances, their children’s health and the state of the world may have been too much for parents to handle at times. It is time to make sure that parents and caregivers are getting the attention that they need to be healthy for their children. Awareness is only the first step to fixing the struggle.