Opinions & Observations: Using booze and baking to cope: A recipe for mental health disaster
Online liquor sales spiked 400 percent in April, and this month a bill in Albany was introduced that will allow restaurants to sell take-out booze—for two years. Maybe the only thing more popular than alcohol right now is flour for all the bread and cookies we are eating.
This should not surprise us. Alcohol and carbohydrates, which release serotonin, make us feel better. But if drinking and eating are all we do to cope with the trauma of the COVID pandemic, our mental and physical health will suffer for years. The stress and despair of losing a job, struggling to pay rent, caring for an elderly or sick loved one, home schooling, and general anxiety about the future are real — and already taking a toll.
Calls to the federal mental health crisis hotline are about 900 percent greater than this time last year. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 50 percent of respondents report that the pandemic has impacted their mental health.