美国国家公共电台 NPR--3 people with a serious mental illness share their journeys through the pandemic

3 people with a serious mental illness share their journeys through the pandemic

Transcript¹

More than one in 20 Americans struggle with a serious mental illness like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder², or severe depression with psychosis. Because these illnesses usually manifest in early adulthood³, they interrupt school plans, burgeoning⁴ careers, dating and relationships. As a result, this population was already socially isolated⁶ and disadvantaged even before the pandemic.

After COVID-19 began to spread, people with mental illness proved not only more prone⁷ to contract the virus, but also more likely to die from it. On top of that, the pandemic dealt a blow to the world's mental health, as financial, political and racial tensions ran high.

How did all of that impact those who were already living with the severest forms of mental illness?

The short answer is: We don't yet know. But researchers and doctors say how well patients fared depended largely upon how many "protective factors" they had — things like access to family, relationships, housing and continued psychiatric treatment. At the same time, patients and physicians often noted⁸ that this is a group accustomed to a life interrupted by crises, and who already had coping mechanisms⁹ to fall back on.

These are the stories of three individuals who shared their experiences of living through the pandemic with a serious mental illness. Their last names have been withheld¹⁰ to protect their privacy.

Peter

Peter is 41 and lives in Boston. But he grew up in Romania under the brutal¹¹ regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980s, when food was scarce and freedom felt non-existent.

"Nobody had privacy in communist Romania," he says. Listening to broadcasts from Britain, as his mother did, was a crime. Government surveillance cameras were everywhere. One of his dissident family members was tortured and later died for speaking out.

"You were afraid of your neighbor, you didn't know if he was an informer to the Secret Police," Peter says.

As a teen, fear started to trigger psychosis and epileptic seizures¹² so severe it led to blackouts and dislocated limbs. The loss of control and physical pain also led to depression. For Peter, paranoia¹³ was both a survival skill and a symptom of his disease.

The seizures continued, even after Peter moved to New Jersey¹⁴ and graduated with business and computer science degrees. He was working in software development when, in 2015, he read a book by Harvard cryptographer Bruce Schneier, warning of a lack of online privacy. Reading it roused familiar demons¹⁵ for Peter.

"I do not want to live in communist Romania; I do not want to go back where I left from," he says.

In job interviews, he started grilling¹⁶ potential employers about their privacy policies. None met with his approval. So he refused to take a job, and even lost his home. For three years, he slept outside the Cambridge Public Library. Eventually, he got treatment, an apartment and back in touch with reality.

Then the pandemic hit.

The soup kitchens he relied on stopped hosting in-person dinners. He couldn't connect with the people who helped him keep his reality in check. He started to see things in a different light. "Seeing people wearing masks, I was thinking that they're trying to protect themselves from the invasive cameras posted all throughout the city, all throughout the subway," he says.

The lines between reality and delusion¹⁸ blurred¹⁹. Misinformation — about the virus and vaccines²⁰ — made reality feel slipperier. Social media algorithms seemed to control political discourse²¹ — and all of it validated²² his concerns about online tracking and privacy.

"If I read the news, which I do every day, I feel like I'm not ill — that things are unfolding exactly as Bruce Schneier predicted," Peter says. "But then I read my diagnosis²³ and it tells me right there, that I am schizophrenic and have paranoid delusions²⁴. So, I don't know."

Monique

Monique was 12 when the mother she idolized was weakened by cancer. That's when her mental illness took root.

"It was not until she started to get sick that I was introduced to multiple abusive situations," says Monique. Foster families physically²⁵ abused her, and she says an older brother assaulted her physically and sexually. By the time she was a teenager, she was hospitalized for psychosis, brought on by depression and PTSD.

Now 29, Monique says the pandemic pressed on a lot of those wounds.

"This pandemic was not fun for a lot of us," she says of her circle of friends with severe mental illness diagnoses. COVID killed her grandmother, an aunt and a cousin. She lost her retail²⁶ job. And for the first time she can remember, Monique was heckled for being Black. She says white supremacists spray-painted her New York apartment building. The strain piled on when her longtime boyfriend lost his handyman work. Then, he left.

"That was my safety net," she says. "When you live alone, it's more overwhelming because it's like, who are you going to express it to? You're supposed to be able to tell your family and friends."

All around her, friends with similar diagnoses unraveled. People lost jobs — and the health insurance and access to treatment that came with them. They grieved alone for family members dying of COVID. Suddenly, she became the sole source of support for many, as their mental health spiraled.

"They didn't want to go to the hospital and they were scared to talk to their family about it," she says. That all became worse when clubhouses, groups that offer social and housing support for people with mental illness, closed for a while. People lost homes. A friend disappeared for months, and Monique went searching for her.

"Me and my dog had to get into a $60 Uber; we had to go to her house to see if she was alive," she says. Those living with serious mental illness without family support, she says, learned to stick together. They're bound together in part by a common understanding of what it's like to feel alone. "It's like people see that you have something wrong with you and they're quick to isolate⁵ you and push you to the side."

Emile

I first met Emile at his neighborhood cafe outside Seattle in 2019, a couple of months before the pandemic hit the U.S. He looked uneasy and unsure of himself. He was trying to emerge from a suicidal bout¹⁷ with depression, and undergoing electroconvulsive therapy to induce seizures that reset²⁷ his brain. It's an aggressive treatment that can relieve symptoms of bipolar disorder, but that also erased²⁸ many of his memories in the process. He kept saying, "I don't remember," of the conversations we'd had a few weeks prior.

His wife, Kim, patiently reminded him of experiences that tethered him to his life. "In terms of looking for a job, it's very difficult to talk about your accomplishments²⁹ or the things that you have done in an interview when you can't remember them," she explained. "Memories are very important; they're autobiographical — it's kind of like who you are."

Memory loss wasn't the only thing weighing on him. Emile had lost his software sales job six months prior. He worried about paying for day care for their two girls, but wasn't quite ready to look for work. "Right now it's pretty bleak³⁰, and I don't have any plans because I'm going through a depression," he said.

Then came the pandemic. Its impact on Emile surprised me.

"With everything that's happening, I'm actually doing really, really well. I'm surprised with how my health is holding up," he now says.

Losing the mad dash of the commute³¹ at either end of their days gave back time and sanity³². It meant he could sleep longer, and no longer needed to pay for day care. Teletherapy was convenient. Working from home enabled the family to spend more time together. For the first time, I hear Emile laugh.

Kim later tells me all that improved his mental health, and hers. "It forced an entire slowdown of modern life," she explains.

And, she says, the pandemic paled in comparison to the stressors they faced the previous winter. "If there is an advantage to his illness, [it's] that we were just sort of primed to know how to handle our family in crisis."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

4 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句

5 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

6 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

7 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

12 seizures   

n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物

参考例句：

• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year. 今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other causes of unconsciousness predisposing to aspiration lung abscess are convulsive seizures. 造成吸入性肺脓肿昏迷的其他原因，有惊厥发作。 来自辞典例句

13 paranoia   

n.妄想狂，偏执狂；多疑症

参考例句：

• Her passion for cleanliness borders on paranoia.她的洁癖近乎偏执。
• The push for reform is also motivated by political paranoia.竞选的改革运动也受到政治偏执狂症的推动。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

15 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 grilling   

v.烧烤( grill的现在分词 )；拷问，盘问

参考例句：

• The minister faced a tough grilling at today's press conference. 部长在今天的记者招待会上受到了严厉的盘问。
• He's grilling out there in the midday sun. 他在外面让中午火辣辣的太阳炙烤着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

18 delusion   

n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑

参考例句：

• He is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.他患了妄想症，认为自己是拿破仑。
• I was under the delusion that he intended to marry me.我误认为他要娶我。

19 blurred   

v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离

参考例句：

• She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. 她饱受头晕目眩之苦。
• Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears. 他们那种慢吞吞、含糊不清的声音在他听起来却很悦耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

21 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

22 validated   

v.证实( validate的过去式和过去分词 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Time validated our suspicion. 时间证实了我们的怀疑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The decade of history since 1927 had richly validated their thesis. 1927年以来的十年的历史，充分证明了他们的论点。 来自辞典例句

23 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

24 delusions   

n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想

参考例句：

• the delusions of the mentally ill 精神病患者的妄想
• She wants to travel first-class: she must have delusions of grandeur. 她想坐头等舱旅行，她一定自以为很了不起。 来自辞典例句

25 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

26 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

27 reset   

v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物

参考例句：

• As soon as you arrive at your destination,step out of the aircraft and reset your wristwatch.你一到达目的地，就走出飞机并重新设置手表时间。
• He is recovering from an operation to reset his arm.他做了一个手臂复位手术，正在恢复。

28 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》

29 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

30 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

31 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

32 sanity   

n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确

参考例句：

• I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。