Harris Stratyner, a psychologist in New York, says that of his 70 patients, 46 of them started medications in the last two years. “A lot of patients have told me that they feel like they can’t get up in the morning,” he said.
Dr. Stratyner’s colleague (and daughter), Alex Stratyner, echoed her father’s observations. “I think what a lot of people are trying to avoid talking about is trauma: People were traumatized by Covid,” she said. “Millions of people have died. There has not been a processing on a grand scale of what it is we just endured.”
The pandemic’s true toll on mental health won’t be known for a long time, but data from the past two years indicates a rise — some of it sharp — in prescription drugs for conditions like A.D.H.D. and depression.
By Casey Schwartz