“Two years of social life to catch up on”: going out in a gang for your mental health

“Assemble!” This is the call from a psychiatrist and a woman living with bipolar disorder, who suffered isolation during the pandemic, to take care of our mental health this summer.

“We have two years of social life to catch up with the gang, let’s go, insists psychiatrist Karine Igartua. Being in nature, in gangs, exercising and being away from screens are all things that are positive for mental health.

This is also the mission that Stéphanie Ghio, a 39-year-old Laval resident who has been suffering from bipolar disorder for fifteen years, has given herself this summer. Won with irrational fear at the start of the pandemic, she isolated herself enormously.

Recurring symptoms

Yet stable for eight years, the symptoms of depression and mania appeared with confinement, she said.

“I was so scared for so long,” says M.^me Ghio, working in marketing. This is why she is striving this summer to reconnect with friends and go out with colleagues, for example.

Already shy by nature, she recognizes that she still has a long way to go to regain her social reflexes and a certain ease in public.

She is far from being the only one in this situation, continues the D^D Igartua, who calls for indulgence, as people begin to mingle again.

The provincial government lifted a two-year state of emergency this week, but COVID-19 is still circulating. This is why the doctor favors outdoor activities, in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.

Loneliness diagnosis

Chief Psychiatrist of the Mental Health Mission of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), the D^D Igartua, points out that many Quebecers have suffered from isolation during the pandemic.

She even remembers having hospitalized “a few patients” with loneliness as the main diagnosis.

“It’s not your bipolar disease that’s worse, you’re not psychotic. But you are so lonely that I give you three days in the hospital, just so you can chat with other patients and nurses,” recalls the psychiatrist.

“It’s good for morale to be in a gang,” continues the specialist.

Stéphanie Ghio and she are also looking forward to meeting at Maisonneuve Park on June 12 for a big race, to raise funds for the Montreal General Hospital Foundation and support mental health care. (link : codelife.ca/race)