Illustration: Alexandra Bowman for HuffPost; Photo: Getty
Bent Not Broken is a look back on the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has disrupted our mental health, plus advice on how to manage our well-being moving forward.
The pandemic has transformed how we think and talk about mental health, particularly as more people have developed chronic stress, anxiety and other issues over the last year.
Of the more than 500,000 people who took a depression screening between March and September 2020, around 8 in 10 people scored with symptoms of moderate to severe depression, according to a 2021 report released by Mental Health America. The survey also found that more participants reported frequent thoughts of self-harm or suicide, and symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety. Further, research has shown that the pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of communities across the globe, including frontline health workers and COVID-19 survivors.