Disability and COVID-19: Depression in a Pandemic

By: Zuleny Gonazalez, MAC’s 2019-2020 Young Adult Leader Fellow

I will be writing a series of blog posts about my experiences during this pandemic. I am a person with disabilities. My disabilities are autism and intellectual disability. We’ve been in quarantine for a while now because of COVID-19. People are trying to get used to this way of life. Some people are okay being quarantined, some people are not. For me, it has been difficult for many reasons. This blog post is about mental health.

I have been dealing with depression for a long time. During this time my depression has gotten worse. Before COVID-19 I was going shopping and to the movies, just more places than just work and staying home. Now all I do is either sleep or do work. My depression has gotten even worse because I don’t have human contact at home. I have lived on my own for less than a year and this is new to me. Another reason my depression has gotten worse is because I was in a relationship then we broke up. Dealing with a break-up during this time hurts. This takes a lot of strength to just get through the day.

Another thing that I’m having a hard time with is my medication. I take medication for my depression and I don’t think I’m on the right dosage. I’ve been trying different kinds of medication with the help of my doctor, but sometimes it’s hard to get in touch with my psychiatrist. Not being on the right medication switches my mood a lot. This is another reason that my mental health isn’t doing so great. My life during this pandemic has hit me hard. My mental health has been up and down and before the pandemic it was still the same but I had more distractions to keep me feeling okay.

Things haven’t been that great with my mental health during this pandemic but I try to do things that help with it. I try to take care of myself. When doing self care I try a lot of things to keep busy. I do self care when I'm feeling stressed out. I like to listen to music and dance. The music I listen to is mostly Spanish trap and it makes me feel good because of how the beat feels happy. Self-care is important because you can have the time to focus on yourself to make sure you have something to do that makes you happy. What I have heard from other people that helps with anxiety and depression is deep breaths and trying to center themselves. I know a lot of people try yoga.

My advice to transition-aged youth is to talk to a therapist, a mentor, or a trusted adult about what you are feeling. If you are keeping your feelings to yourself, things might get worse, it's important to talk or find ways for you to not be in that state of mind. It's important to have things to help with your mental health. I do hope this helped some young adults in this pandemic and look out for more topics during this time.