Mental health, called the parallel pandemic, is taking on ever more frightening proportions. A global epidemic of mental health was already being talked about before Covid – an estimated one in four people experience a mental health problem in a year, and as many as one in two people in the world over their lifetime.
Unlike viral diseases, mental disorders such as depression or anxiety disorders break people’s lives for long years. And the first year of Covid increased the numbers for depression and anxiety disorders by a further quarter. The situation with young people’s mental health is especially bad.
Data from the Estonian National Mental Health Study carried out in 2021–2022* point to the widespread prevalence of mental health problems in the Estonian population. Based on self-assessments, a quarter (27.6%) of adults were at risk of depression and one in five (20%) at risk of generalised anxiety disorder. For both indicators, young adults (aged 18–24) stood out as a risk group: 37.2% of them were at risk of anxiety disorders and 56.2% at risk of depression. Half of the respondents had somatic complaints and traumatic life events.
It should be noted that the high frequency of mental health problems based on self-assessed indicators is not specific to Estonia, but a fairly typical result of studies of this kind elsewhere, especially during the pandemic (e.g. Ettman et al., 2020).
The good news, however, is that many mental health disorders are preventable, and every person can look after and promote their own mental health. The summary of the study also found that stress and its negative consequences can be eased through regulating emotions.
Fortunately, various evidence-based methods and courses that help people learn health-supporting practices and integrate them into their lives are also increasingly available. Because knowledge alone is unfortunately not enough – healthy habits need to be practised every day.
To support you on this path, we invite you to take part in the world’s most researched 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), the original programme of which is available on site in Estonia for the first time this autumn.
Read more about the course
If you would like to share information about the course with people you know, here is the Facebook event.
* The study data come from: https://www.tai.ee/et/rvtu
