Researchers Fear Pandemic Inflicting War-Like Mental Health Damage in Australia

SYDNEY - Experts say coronavirus lockdowns anywhere in the world can trigger stress, irritability, fear and fatigue. There can be a disconnection from extended family and friends, causing loneliness. Uncertainty is another corrosive factor.

In Australia, mental health charities estimated that about a third of people in Melbourne suffered some sort of depression during the nation’s longest and strictest lockdown last year. Research has also found that lockdowns are making some Australian children too anxious to go to school. Life in Australia was beginning to return to normal. But recently, the highly contagious delta variant was detected in several states and territories threatening progress. Lockdowns were imposed in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Darwin — subjecting millions of Australians to stay-at-home orders. Professor Susan Rossell, a cognitive neuropsychologist at Swinburne’s Centre for Mental Health, compares mental health consequences of the coronavirus crisis to a conflict.