MACON, Ga. — Coliseum Health will offer free depression screenings amid the COVID-19 pandemic in response to a rise in depression across the U.S.
According to the CDC, 40% of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health during the pandemic.
Clark Myers is a graduate student at Mercer University, he is also a big mental health advocate.
He says he has dealt with ADHD, which caused a lot of complications before he was officially diagnosed.
He says it's no surprise to him that depression is on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. He conducted a survey to see what Mercer students wanted the university to focus on this year.
"We had so many people say COVID, but more than that, topics on how to deal with loneliness regarding COVID-19," Myers said.
Bruce Conn, a licensed family and marriage therapist at Coliseum Health Systems, says depression often brings lack of energy and lack of interest.
"It's not surprising at all. When you pull away a lot of natural supports and natural routines, it feeds right into what depression usually looks like," he said.
Conn suggests putting your communication devices to use.
"We need to be connected. Making the effort to call and reach out to your friends," he said. "We've got this technology today, like you and I are talking, and we're sort of face-to-face. It's not the same as being in the same room but it's meaningful."
Myers says connection is one of the biggest things that helped him through his darkest times, once he was no longer afraid to talk to people about it.
"There's a hesitation to be vulnerable and honest when it comes to things like mental health because we don't want people to think less of us, or to think that we are different," Myers said. "You're in the middle of a hard time, you're in the middle of depression so it's hard to see those other times where you didn't have depression or when you weren't in the middle of that fight."
During the pandemic, Conn says he saw that people were waiting to come to him about their depression because they were fearful.
By the time they decided to come to him, he saw that the depression had gotten worse.
"I encourage people that if you have some indication that this is a struggle or that you're suffering, that you ask for help," Conn said.
"We're so much more deserving of help than we're willing to tell ourselves." Myers said.
Coliseum Health will be offering a free depression health screening for National Health Screening Day on October 8. Conn encourages people to get a depression screening if they are seeing signs of depression.
To make an appointment, you can call Coliseum Health Systems at 478-741-1355.