New year, new Covid cases on the rise, just like we all predicted. But how does having Covid affect the mental health of the students at OM?

Mental health has a huge impact on everybody especially when we are going through times like these. There’s so much going on in the world these days that just by getting Covid, it could easily stop us from doing them. In today’s world, mental health is important to everybody, even if it’s just by playing a sport to distract yourself from problems you may have going on. Having Covid can definitely affect mental health, often making it worse. Imagine being isolated for a week and not being able to go out at all.

The Mayo Clinic says “During the COVID-19 pandemic, you may experience stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, and loneliness. And mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, can worsen.” Some of the students at OM who have experienced dealing with Covid while having to quarantine from school have insight about this. Some of these students might have been dealing with other things while having to be quarantined as well. They were dealing with the work they were missing, having to be alone for a while, and potentially feeling quite sick on top of it all.

“Yes, I was stressed out but not as much, as my work was piling up, my grades were going down’’ said senior Gabriela Sorto. In other cases, students have been quarantined even though they didn’t have Covid. These students are being quarantined for being in close contact with other students who have tested positive for Covid. “I was more frustrated, if anything,” senior Edward Hernadez said about being sent home even though he didn’t have Covid. “It was cool having a mini-vacation, but they sent me home out of nowhere. It turned out that I didn’t even have it, so it felt like a big waste of time.” But it’s not just the fact that he was sent home because of Covid, it also made him stress out more. “I was stressed because of the classes I was missing and the work building up.”

Having Covid while having to deal with other things ruins people’s mental health or even worsens it, especially being a student and not being able to do work due to the fact that you’re being home and isolated. Work is piling up and the stress is growing for the students at OM.