WHEN IS IT MENTAL ILLNESS?

IT SEEMS there’s always something to be anxious or down about these days. Whether it’s the latest coronavirus statistics or a personal matter that has you feeling low, experts agree – the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a marked increase in mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression.

So much so that genetic predisposition, the primary risk factor for developing a mental illness, may no longer apply.

‘If anxiety causes dysfunction, it needs to be treated’

“A mental illness typically presents in someone’s twenties or thirties for the first time,” says Dr Barbara Pierce, a psychiatrist at the Bona Dea Centre in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

“But in these times of unpredictability and huge stress, we’re seeing it presenting for the first time across the age range, from children to the elderly – even in those who aren’t genetically predisposed.”