As pandemic persists, mental health frays��

PANDEMIC-INDUCED fear continues to weigh down Filipinos, who are calling crisis hotlines, searching the��internet for wellness apps and anxiety remedies, and reporting a lack of focus.��

“Questions are triggered. People call and say, what if I die? I may not live. The idea of mortality is close to them,” said Jean L. Goulbourn, founder and chief executive officer of��, a non-profit organization founded in 2007 that helps individuals battle depression.��

Fear��—��the beginning of anxiety — is the number one reason that people call NGF’s hotlines, said Ms. Goulbourn, in an interview with�����ܲ����Ա�����´ǰ�������a day before Metro Manila entered enhanced community quarantine due to a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.����

“COVID-19 is like depression. It does not choose age anymore, does not choose social status,” she said. “You can be a CEO and COVID-19 can still hit you. It’s exactly like depression.”����

WELLNESS APPS
Aside from calling organizations like NGF, Filipinos are also looking online for ways to calm their fraying nerves.����

Google searches for mental health services increased by 128% in the Philippines from January to May 2021 compared to the same period in 2019, according to a recent report by��. This increase places the Philippines second only to Indonesia, Asia’s COVID-19 epicenter, which recorded a 231% increase in searches for psychologists and similar services.��

The iPrice report also showed that Filipinos are increasingly interested in anxiety remedies such as scented candles (up 348%), weighted blankets (up 273%), essential oils (up 155%), and therapy lamps (up 139%), based on information collated from July 14 to 16 using Google Keyword Planner.����

Searches for wellness and meditation apps such as Headspace and Talkspace are also surging among Filipinos.����

MENTAL MALAISE
These findings are on top of a poll by��MindNation, a wellbeing organization, that showed that the local workforce is feeling the brunt of this pandemic. According to a study released this June, more than half of 6,000 respondents are worried about health risks and financial pressures.����

Among the challenges are a lack of focus and concentration, less pleasure in doing things normally enjoyed, lower self-confidence, sleeping problems, and feeling down.����

NGF’s Ms. Goulbourn said that because of the pandemic, the stigma for seeking help for mental health issues is less pronounced among Filipinos as COVID-19 has heightened everyone’s sense of mortality.����

“We’re confronted with death now,” she said, adding that a two-hour lecture on mental resilience is of little to no use. “One webinar cannot help,” she said, offering instead NGF’s four-month workshop as a “real course and workshop that creates hope in action.” —��Patricia B. Mirasol��

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Individuals seeking mental support may get in touch with the National Center for Mental Health hotlines at 1553, 0917-8998727, 7989-8727, or with Natasha Goulbourn Foundation’s HOPELINE at 8804-4673, 0918-8734673, and 0917-5584573.��