I suspect a third of Americans are now displaying symptoms of mental health disorders that were already present. Mental health disorders are drastically under reported in the US, and due to various stigmas most people are unwilling to except mental health illnesses as actual illnesses until they are prepared to harm someone.
This is the number one problem most police officers deal with when engaging with the public. Many people have mental health disorders they are not aware of resulting in all manners of poor decisions and disorderly conduct. Some of these disorders are severe and demand medication and some are exaggerated by existing medications. I recommend talking with experienced police officers and listening to some of their war stories.
My sister-in-law is also a managing mental health counselor and says the number of undiagnosed mental health disorders could represent as much as 40% of the population.
In my own experience I find that people hide from this by frequently changing their social situation and environment through out the day, such as driving to an office. When you are stuck at home full time with nowhere to go suddenly coping and distraction mechanisms are gone which becomes clear to the coinhabitants. I am on my fifth military deployment so I have gone through this a few times, and you can readily see the people lacking of a regular rhythm of emotional stability and stress management. You are with these people all the time as you live, socialize, and work with them. On a military deployment you can’t rely on a frequent change of scenery to hide your insanity.
The most common example of excuse that people would hide behind pre-pandemic is finances. Bad financial situations are stressful, but stress is not a mental health disorder. Extreme stresses though often exacerbate pre-existing illnesses. In that regard bad finances don’t produce mental health disorders as frequently as suggested but instead exaggerate pre-existing conditions that become more clearly identifiable.
The difference between stress and a mental health disorder is something called homeostasis, which is the ability of the brain to return to a state of regular emotional equilibrium following an incidence of high stress. The military refers to the cognitive process of actively maintaining homeostasis as resiliency and it’s part of our annual training. The inability to return to resume functions of prior behavior following a major stressor is likely the result of a mental health illness.
https://www.academia.edu/4970988/Mental_Health_DSM-V_mental_...