- The CDC reports thecoronavirus pandemic is causing

a large number of Americans to suffer

from a variety of mental health issues

such as suicide, depression,

and substance abuse.

People from all walksof life are experiencing

these issues in greater numbers.

However, the numbers are much higher,

disproportionately worse in fact,

in young people, minorities,essential workers

and unpaid caregivers.

CBN's medical reporterLorie Johnson is here

to give us more details on this.

So Lorie, these numbersmay not surprise anyone.

Didn't health experts predictthis is what we'd see?

- Absolutely, and it's kindof a no brainer back in March

when they startedtalking about lock downs,

not going to school,

not going to church,

not going out to work.

People are like, wow,

that's going to reallyaffect people mentally.

And we're seeing that the number

of people who are depressedis four times greater than

this time last year.

The people who have anxiety disorder,

three times greater thanthis time last year.

The number of people who areseriously considering suicide,

double what it was this time last year

and people are reportingone in 10 people report

either beginning to abuse substances

or abusing the substancethey already abused more so.

And we're seeing the main reasons

for these problems is

because they are afraid of getting COVID

and dying from it

or having serious complicationsafraid of getting it

and giving it to somebody who would die.

Also of course the financial implications

and social isolation.

- Horrible, what can people do

to avoid becoming a statistic?

- Well, the CDC has issued some guidelines

and the first thing they say is get help.

And the good news is thatthere's the tele-health.

So You can contact a mentalhealth provider, a psychologist,

a counselor, a psychiatrist,

and do the appointments over the phone

or on a screen if you Zoom or FaceTime.

Also, a lot of these peopleare doing office hours.

Now, you have to wear a mask

and maintain social distancing.

Also make the effort to heal yourself

to the extent that you can.

What do I mean by that?

Go out and try to connect with people,

call people,

try to zoom with people

or FaceTime with people,

or get together with people

in social distance outsidewearing the mask and everything.

But a lot of people,

when they become depressed,

they isolate even more.

So you need to try to get out there.

Another thing that we do

is we eat a lot of the comfort food,

which makes us feel better at the time,

but believe it or not Efrem,

comfort food and unhealthy food

actually affects our mental status.

So eating healthy foods like salads

and even going without food-

intermittent fastinglike for 12 hours a day.

Stop eating at 6:00 p.m

and don't eat again until6:00 a.m or even longer.

Believe it or not,

that's been shown tohelp your mental capacity

and other neurological issues.

Also exercise

and so we know the gyms are closed,

but you can exercise outside

or you can exercise athome in front of the TV.

There are all kinds ofclasses you can take right

on the TV and do jumpingjacks and pushups.

You don't even need any equipment.

- Tons of apps (laughs)

to get to work.

Let's talk about teens in particular,

we know an already growing suicide rate

and drug overdose rate isgetting bigger now due to COVID.

- Right and you can understand this

because of the social isolation

that these teens are feeling

and for teenagers especially,

it's hard because during these years are

when people start to look to their future,

they start to plan out their lives

and they're looking at the they don't get

to go to graduation.

Now we're seeing,

they don't even get to go to college,

they're not being able to get married,

they're not even dating really that much.

And so they're thinkingabout what am I gonna do

for my life,

job opportunities

and all that seems verynegative right now.

There's very little hope about the future.

And then we think aboutteenage younger children

really especially needthat structure of school.

And it's very hard on them emotionally

and mentally to not go to school.

We know there are challengesof going to school too.

We really just need to pray for everyone.

One more thing,

these are people who reallyneed our prayers are the folks

who are unpaid caregivers.

We're talking aboutpeople who are taking care

of their elderly parents.

They are under anenormous amount of stress,

especially if they have to goout into the World and work.

You think about people whowork at a grocery store

and come into contactwith people all the time,

then go home and take careof their very sick parents.

Or if you live in a small apartment

and you have children there,

they're going out and about,

sick mom at home,

you're going out,

it's really understandable whypeople are so stressed out.

- Indeed, indeed.

Lorie, thank you so much.

Wanna remind you at homethat you can always get more

information by tuning into healthy living.

It begins this evening at 9:30,

and you can find thaton the CBN News Channel.