For instance, there are the stresses of social distancing and working from home while trying to homeschool our children.

With the coronavirus pandemic, we now face a global death toll that’s only expected to rise, the threat of a global economic recession, and the sadness of knowing our lives will probably never return to the way they once were.īut we are also overwhelmed by the immediate impacts of this pandemic. Click here to find them.Īll of this makes sense. The International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-80 If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help:Ĭrisis Text Line: Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling Now, the service reports that one in every five conversations mentions “virus,” “coronavirus,” or “Covid-19.” “There is a consistent feeling of anxiety that we’re seeing increase.” “In relation to coronavirus in particular, they’re using words like ‘scared,’ ‘terrified,’ ‘overwhelmed,’ ‘panicking,’ ‘paranoid,’” Crisis Text Line’s chief data scientist and co-founder Bob Filbin told Recode. Struggling to adapt to a world embattled by a pandemic, others seem to be looking for sources of support as well. Still, when I’d last used it, I was comforted by the immediate response and by the idea that I was - anonymously - talking to another human. Keep in mind that the service isn’t meant to be a long-term source of care, and you’re generally chatting with a volunteer counselor, not a licensed therapist.

Crisis Text Line, the tool I directed my friend to, reports that its volume of messages has jumped by more than 116 percent since Monday. Meanwhile, mental health chatbots Wysa and Woebot have also seen usage go up.ĭemand extends beyond chatbots, too. One of its primary competitors, BetterHelp, says the number of new members starting its service has spiked and that the number of new users who mentioned concerns about stress and anxiety during the past two months has more than doubled compared to the same period last year. TalkSpace, which calls itself an online therapy company, reports that the volume of users on the platform is up about 25 percent since the middle of February and that growth is accelerating. The spike in interest in these digital mental health tools, which appear to vary in quality and scope, isn’t specific to a single company. Given the current realities of life in our increasingly digital world - and the demands of social distancing - it makes sense that people turn to remote sources of psychological support. The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is fueling demand for digital mental health tools as apps, chatbots, and text-a-therapist platforms report an influx of users in search of much-needed help. That people are seeking digital sources of mental health support isn’t particularly surprising. She took my recommendation and sent her first message to the service in the middle of a work day. So I directed her to a service I’d used before called Crisis Text Line, which facilitates text-based conversations with volunteer crisis counselors. I was worried about her, but I didn’t know if what I had to say was helpful or harmful. But at one point, she seemed to be feeling worse and worse and I - with no sort of mental health training - no longer felt I had the right words to respond in the moment.

They comprised mostly of sharing the worst Covid-19-inspired tweets, separated by the usual supply of vague platitudes. Suddenly stuck in our rooms, it’s fair to say that our mental health had plummeted, and we were - and both continue to feel - overwhelmed, stressed, and incredibly sad.Īdmittedly, our coping strategies weren’t great, either. I was nervous about extensive self-isolating, scouring the news every few minutes for bright spots amid mostly tragedy-ridden headlines. She’d tell me she couldn’t stop crying, worried about her parents’ job security and an abrupt transition to working from home. Over the past two weeks, my closest friend and I have regularly traded our worst Covid-19 anxieties over text.

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