Back to normal? Psychologists warn the pandemic could have lasting effects
May 18, 2021
By Thor Benson
As life slowly returns to some version of normalcy in the U.S., psychologists are confronting a difficult reality: Many people won’t be back to normal anytime soon.
That means the work of many mental health professionals is only starting. Psychologists are ramping up efforts to understand how the pandemic has affected Americans’ minds — with an eye on inequality and long-term reverberations.
“I’m very concerned about the effects being long-term,” said Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. “Given that — consistently, globally — you’ve seen the levels of depression and anxiety high since last March, that tells me that we’re going to see an increasing prevalence of mental health [problems] globally.”
