A recent article in Psychiatry Times on 4 February this year rang the alarm bells for me on what we have forgotten through the years about failure to address anxiety and depression in people who just “get by” with sub-optimal mood untreated often for years. The recent study identifies that such people are more at risk of developing “Long Covid”.
This shouldn’t surprise those of us who have been reading on trauma impact over the last forty years, but as the “old guy” I am reminded often, most of my colleagues haven’t forgotten a study, they simply never came across it at University. I had the great pleasure of working with Professor David Alexander of Aberdeen University at a Conference we both spoke at in Perth WA over twenty years ago. He gave a reflective analysis of the findings from the Piper Alpha Body Recovery Operation that he was consultant and attending psychiatrist all through.
He found that amongst the well-trained police personnel involved in the body recovery work, those who had previously experienced anxiety-depression, and where it was not fully resolved, had far more symptoms of distress than the other personnel. Many lessons were drawn from this significant event/study/report, but the key “alarm bell” for me with the “Long-Covid” discovery is that we must see Anxiety-Depression as a problem to be “knocked over and eliminated”, not just “lived with”.
Failure to “kick for touch” anxiety-depression symptoms and life patterns sets the individual affected up for later, potentially fatal or debilitating conditions. Long-Covid in the USA ends careers and seriously shortens lives for some. David Alexander’s discovery at the Piper-Alpha Recovery Operation reminds us that PTSD is way more likely to develop after a later trauma exposure if we come into the situation with any unresolved anxiety-depression.
As an old Naval Officer involved personally in multiple traumatic events, I want to be a bit “over the top” (to some of you more sheltered-life people) on this subject, so forgive me, but think please. My message to challenge you – Let’s declare war on all anxiety-depression and see it as a debilitating and potentially fatal thing to ignore or just “live with”, especially after the post-covid years have uncovered these disturbing things. Mental Health is directly related to the Immune System and our survival “Fight-Flight” bio-chemical responses, and so let’s see it as important to defeat and eliminate anxiety and depression as we will defeat the flu and colds by regular intelligent self-care.
Dr John C McEwan
At Monarch Psychology Rooms, Greenlane