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The holidaysoften makepeople more vulnerable to feeling depressed or anxious. But for the millions of Americans suffering from a pandemic-induced financial crisis,the risk is much greater this season.
Many are at their wit’s end. And it doesn’t appear thathelp is on the way.
Congress is still at odds over a packagethat would provide additional economic aidto those who have lost their jobs or are struggling to get by. For many Americans, federal pandemic benefits are set to expire by the end of next month – if they haven’t already.
Readers have told CNN Business how desperate, dismayed and depressed they’ve become.
Barely getting by
“I’ve exhausted all of my unemployment benefits. I’ve had to resort to food stamps and [California’s Medicaid program] for the first time in my life. I’m backdated on my rent and my credit has been ruined,” said 38-year-old Andrew Lee, who lives in a suburb of Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Lee lost his job as a business development director several months before the pandemic. But once it hit, it became that much harder to find work. Andhe didn’t initially qualify for any pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
His wife, meanwhile, was furloughed without pay from her job as a fitness instructor at a gym that has been shut down due to Covid restrictions. She now collects $467 a week in unemployment benefits.
“We’re getting by barely,” Lee said.
Vehicles line up for food distribution in Clermont, Florida, on November 21.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Hundreds of homeless people wait in line to receive food from the Los Angeles Mission on the day before Thanksgiving.
Etienne Laurent/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Volunteers prepare Thanksgiving meals at the Salvation Army in Orlando.
Paul Hennesy/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Two women take home free meals after waiting in a long line at a high school in South Gate, California, on November 25.
Allen J Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Shutterstock
Volunteers in Denver work at the Food Bank of the Rockies on November 25.
Kevin Mohatt/Reuters
Members of the Indiana National Guard assist food bank volunteers as they distribute Thanksgiving meals in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 20.
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/Sipa/AP
People wait in line to receive food at the Bay Area Rescue Mission's Thanksgiving Giveaway in Richmond, California.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Volunteers distribute turkeys and other foods in Clermont, Florida.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Sipa/AP Images
Cars line up as the Pantry 279 food bank hands out Thanksgiving meals in Bloomington, Indiana.
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Cars line up at a food distribution site sponsored by local churches and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images//Shutterstock
A volunteer puts on gloves before packing boxes of food outside the Second Harvest Food Bank in Irvine, California, on November 19.
Ashley Landis/AP
Volunteers direct traffic at a food distribution site in Clermont, Florida.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
The Food Bank for New York City hosted a pop-up food pantry in September.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Food Bank for New York City
Paulina Bastidas-Yale helps distribute food at a Boston church in September.
David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Boxes of cereal are ready to be distributed at the Hope Rescue Mission in Reading, Pennsylvania, in August.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images
Volunteer Joseph Cunliffe holds a bag of bread to put in someone's car in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, in August.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images
Drivers line up for a pop-up grocery event in Mankato, Minnesota, in July.
Ben Brewer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A volunteer hands two dozen eggs to a Helping Harvest employee to give to someone in their car in Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania, in June.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images
Volunteers load plastic bags with food in Everett, Massachusetts, during a weekly food pantry service run by Grace Ministries of the North Shore.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images
People line up for food assistance in Waltham, Massachusetts, in April.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
People wait in their cars for the San Antonio Food Bank to begin distributing food in April.
William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News/AP
Volunteers at the Capital Area Food Bank pack up boxes of food to be distributed in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Volunteers and city employees prepare to hand out bags of food at a drive-through site in Opa-locka, Florida, in April. The food was provided by the food bank Feeding South Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Gladys Socop helps to bag up food while volunteering at a pop-up food pantry in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
National Guard members help pack food boxes at the Nourish Pierce County food bank in Tacoma, Washington.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times/Redux
A line of cars waits to receive food at a distribution site in Van Nuys, California, in April.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Bags of fruit await residents during a food drive in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
A volunteer in Phoenix hands over a box donated by St. Mary's Food Bank in April. The drive-through was set up for the general public on the campus of Phoenix College.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
Volunteers with Forgotten Harvest load food into vehicles at a mobile pantry in Detroit.
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Volunteer Maria Cunningham sorts through bags of food before distributing them at a church in Des Moines, Iowa, in April.
Jack Kurtz/Zuma
Volunteers in Orlando hand out food from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Paul Hennessy/Sipa/AP
Cars line up in a mall parking lot that was the site of a drive-through food pantry in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Neil Blake/AP
Volunteer David Mack hands a woman food at the First AME Church in Athens, Georgia.
Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald/USA Today
Donated supplies wait for distribution at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, DC.
Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images
A volunteer holds fruit while helping to distribute food at Pantry 279 in Ellettsville, Indiana.
Jeremy Hogan/Barcroft Media/Getty Images
An employee of the Food Bank for New York City transports a pallet of groceries in April.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Treasure Coast Food Bank volunteer Lynn Goeke loads a box of apples into a vehicle during a drive-through food distribution in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Leah Voss/TCPalm/USA Today
People line up for food at Sharing & Caring Hands, a charity in Minneapolis, in March.
David Joles/Star Tribune/AP
With people out of work, food banks are stepping up
Their two cars have been repossessed and they’re getting notices that their internet service may be shut off, which would make it hard for theirkids to continue online classes.
Initially, Lee said, he tried to handle their worsening financial situation on his own so his family wouldn’t worry. But at a certain point, he noted, “the pressure becomes so enormous and stressful it starts to show.”
He became grumpier, quicker to anger and at one point was drinking too much “to escape.”
“There was one instance, I kind of broke. It was like, man, just having really dark thoughts,” said Lee, who reached out to his family and close friends for emotional support. Their words of encouragement helped him see this chapter as temporary. “We have to have the mentality to weather the storm,”he said, describingthe perspective they offered.
Now sober for two months, he said, “I’m more in the mindset that being stressed out about things I can’t control, I need to kind of say f*** it because if I let it consume me I will lose more than mental health, but my family and loved ones.”
Fifty-six year old Tina Louise Parsons of New Orleans used to work with autistic children in group homes. But in 2017, she became a full-time driver for Lyft and Uber after a medical crisis made it hard for her to continue working with kids.
Parsons said she used to make enough to pay her bills and even save a little. But she lost her work with Uber in February and once the pandemic hit, tourists disappeared and fewer people called for car service to get to work,diminishing the money she made at Lyft as well.She now tries to make $100 a day, which can take her 10 hours or more between making Lyft pickups, working as an Instacart shopper, and delivering food for DoorDash and GrubHub.
Tina Louise Parsons has had bouts of depression since her income dropped significantly in recent months.
Courtesy Tina Louise Parsons
While she didn’t qualify for much of the pandemic aid available, she was allowed to go on Medicaid, after years of living without health insurance.
“I try and be grateful for what I have,” Parsons said. But not making enough to pay her bills and never feeling like her income is secure leaves her feeling depressed. “I find it difficult to want to get up in the mornings. Even harder to use what little money I have for gas to drive around and try to find something to deliver for a few dollars.”
At one point, when she wasn’t sure how she was going to keep her phone on and buy food in the same week, she took herself to urgent care to talk to a mental health professional.
Now, she said, “with the holidays rolling in, it does get heavy.”
She normally buys and cooks food to deliver to the homeless on Thanksgiving, but she can’t afford that this year. She does, however, plan to cook a turkey for herself and a friend, who moved in with her after getting evicted from his place.
“I need to make pies, bake bread and make my stuffing. I need to cook.” Parsons said. “I need to do it for my own mental health. I’m just tired of being sad.”
Covid financial stress and depression
Lee’s and Parsons’ response to their situations echo what researchers are finding.
A study from Boston University’s School of Public Health found the prevalence of depression symptoms among US adults increased threefold after Covid hit.
America in 2020: Food banks have been overrun by people using them for the first time as a result of pandemic-induced financial stress.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Food Bank For New York City
It also found the people at greatest risk were those with lower incomes, savings below $5,000 or greater exposure to financial stressors, such as job loss.
“People experiencing financial stressors are more likely to experience depression,” said Catherine Ettman, the study’s lead researcher.
In other research Ettman worked on, but which has not yet been peer reviewed, the findings suggest those who lost their jobs and have difficulty paying rent are more likely to have suicidal thoughts.
Meanwhile, a study from the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy research foundation, found that more Americans have experienced negative financial impacts and mental health distress due to the pandemic than the citizens of nine other high-income countries.
Given the correlation between financial stressors and depression, Ettman suggests that more federal economic aid to those struggling will not only help them pay their bills. “Our hope is [their] mental health will improve,” she said.
If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 for free and confidential support 24/7.