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The Pandemic Health Gender Gap · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephan
0:07
Speaker 1: I never told you production of I Heart Radio and
0:18
Speaker 1: welcome too. I hope it's been okay for all of
0:24
Speaker 1: you listeners so far. This is our first recording session
0:27
Speaker 1: of Yeah, Happy New Year. Yes, Happy New Year. And
0:33
Speaker 1: in traditional Sminty fashion, we are not starting off in
0:37
Speaker 1: the new year with organizational tips or resolutions. We are
0:41
Speaker 1: going to look at the physical and mental toll the
0:43
Speaker 1: pandemic is having on women. So yeah, I mean it's
0:46
Speaker 1: never ending, so why not it's never ending? Uh? And
0:52
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's something about, you know, being two
0:55
Speaker 1: years into a pandemic almost and seeing all these ads
1:00
Speaker 1: for exercising or getting i don't know, getting a bitter
1:04
Speaker 1: shape or eating better and just being like, right, I
1:07
Speaker 1: mean essentially with a new variant, I'm like, well, I'm
1:10
Speaker 1: still not working out because I will not go to
1:12
Speaker 1: the gym. No, I'm not prepared for this obviously, so
1:17
Speaker 1: I will continue to stay home and just pretend like
1:21
Speaker 1: it's been the last two years. Still. Yes, Yes, And
1:24
Speaker 1: we're you know, big proponents of taking care of yourselves
1:27
Speaker 1: and ourselves. You know. Sometimes I don't write the mark,
1:32
Speaker 1: but you're gonna be talking about. I will say, I
1:34
Speaker 1: totally understand there's no real trigger warning. We are going
1:36
Speaker 1: to be talking about mental, mental health, and physical health
1:40
Speaker 1: around all of this, but I totally get if you're
1:43
Speaker 1: tired and don't want to hear it right now. But
1:46
Speaker 1: with the caveat that, even though what we're talking about
1:50
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily fun, it actually for me at least was
1:53
Speaker 1: kind for relief because I was like, yes that, yes, yeah,
1:57
Speaker 1: I mean you and I talked about this episode before
2:00
Speaker 1: we left to have a kind of a holiday, which
2:03
Speaker 1: is hilarious because we don't really do holidays in general
2:06
Speaker 1: time off, but we were like, oh my gosh, there's
2:10
Speaker 1: so many things that I was like, what is wrong
2:11
Speaker 1: with me? What's wrong with my body? And then finding
2:13
Speaker 1: these articles that jump out and you're like, You're not
2:15
Speaker 1: the only one. It makes me feel a lot better.
2:18
Speaker 1: I'm hoping maybe there's a turnaround, or at least I'm
2:20
Speaker 1: not the only one. So when we would see each other,
2:23
Speaker 1: the people who are going through the same things as
2:25
Speaker 1: I feel like I've been going through the last two years,
2:27
Speaker 1: that's been like my body has changed significantly, What is
2:30
Speaker 1: happening to have that commodity of like, okay, okay, it's
2:33
Speaker 1: not just me. It's cool, cool, cool, cool good to know. Yes, yes, exactly, exactly.
2:39
Speaker 1: Oh good, this isn't all on my head. So, as
2:43
Speaker 1: we have been in this pandemic for a while, we
2:45
Speaker 1: have looked at a lot of aspects of it um
2:48
Speaker 1: and how particularly those aspects have impacted women, including domestic violence,
2:52
Speaker 1: childcare jobs, um. And since we have been in this
2:57
Speaker 1: for a while, more research is coming out about the
3:00
Speaker 1: toll that the pandemic is having on women particularly, And
3:04
Speaker 1: we're going to break this down into physical and mental
3:06
Speaker 1: health outcomes, but very important to remember the two are
3:09
Speaker 1: closely connected, and we're going to talk about that throughout.
3:12
Speaker 1: And that's actually why I didn't ask a question at
3:14
Speaker 1: the top, Samantic, because I know you and I are
3:16
Speaker 1: going to be discussing some of our personal stuff as
3:21
Speaker 1: we go through this. But let's start with some of
3:23
Speaker 1: the physical impacts. So, as I said, we have discussed
3:27
Speaker 1: a few health impacts the pandemic has had and how
3:29
Speaker 1: stress in general can cause negative health outcomes. And I
3:34
Speaker 1: would go out on a limb and say almost all
3:37
Speaker 1: of us are fairly stressed right now. Women are likelier
3:41
Speaker 1: to experience long COVID, for example, as high as eight
3:44
Speaker 1: percent more likely to experience We talked about that a
3:47
Speaker 1: little bit um, and women are likelier to report having
3:50
Speaker 1: more severe reactions to the vaccine. There are a few
3:53
Speaker 1: theories as to why that is, um, including women having
3:56
Speaker 1: higher rates of autoimmune diseases and having more reactive une systems.
4:01
Speaker 1: Antibody responses are up two times up to two times
4:04
Speaker 1: higher for women. On top of this, women are more
4:08
Speaker 1: likely to have gone without health care during the pandemic,
4:11
Speaker 1: including preventative care, and are more likely to experience worsening
4:15
Speaker 1: health conditions. Women in fair to poor health are less
4:19
Speaker 1: likely to get recommended test, treatments or prescriptions filled as
4:23
Speaker 1: compared to women in good health, probably because they are
4:26
Speaker 1: at a higher risk of contracting a more severe case
4:29
Speaker 1: of COVID nineteen. A part of this is the gender difference.
4:33
Speaker 1: Um are that it might be a part of it
4:36
Speaker 1: because women in general were more likely to seek out
4:38
Speaker 1: healthcare pre pandemic, so the drop is larger for them.
4:44
Speaker 1: That's us one theory. Anyway, these numbers are worse for
4:47
Speaker 1: women of color as well, and insurance and income are
4:50
Speaker 1: key factors to all of this, um, yeah, and I'll
4:55
Speaker 1: say I haven't. I kept putting things off, and I
4:58
Speaker 1: kept saying, I'll get this checked when the pandemic ends.
5:01
Speaker 1: And the pandemic like I look at my might, pretend
5:04
Speaker 1: to watch I'm like, oh gosh, still going right. Keep
5:09
Speaker 1: Last year, you and I were like do we go
5:11
Speaker 1: to get a physical to lessen our premium or do
5:14
Speaker 1: we just risk it? And we risk it because we
5:16
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, I guess we will have to pay
5:17
Speaker 1: out a pocket which sucks, especially because yes, for anyone
5:21
Speaker 1: all this wellness thing, come on, that's a whole different conversation,
5:25
Speaker 1: but in that level of yeah, but is it worth
5:29
Speaker 1: going to a very high risk area. Yes for some
5:36
Speaker 1: and as unfortunate and I hate that. I hate this
5:38
Speaker 1: whole system, as we've talked about before. But for us,
5:41
Speaker 1: we were like, Okay, well, I guess we're just gonna
5:43
Speaker 1: have to eat it and then also never go see
5:45
Speaker 1: a doctor again because what if we get an infection?
5:48
Speaker 1: In general, yeah, yeah, which is not not a great
5:52
Speaker 1: situation to be in at all. Studies have also found
5:55
Speaker 1: that more and more women are dolaying getting birth control,
5:58
Speaker 1: or that they're reporting that they don't have access to it.
6:01
Speaker 1: We discussed this in a past episode and how it's
6:03
Speaker 1: a problem worldwide and has caused an increase in unwanted
6:06
Speaker 1: pregnancies in the millions. Um STI Stilbur's maternal death and
6:11
Speaker 1: maternal depression. Other research found changes in menstrual periods like
6:16
Speaker 1: delayed periods, um more symptoms with periods, and heavier flow,
6:21
Speaker 1: which does impact health and wellness. Experts think that this
6:24
Speaker 1: is due to the stress of the pandemic. One survey
6:29
Speaker 1: found sixty one of Americans experience unwanted weight changes during
6:32
Speaker 1: the pandemic, which also impacts health. Alcohol related hospital emissions
6:37
Speaker 1: have skyrocketed during this pandemic as well. About one in
6:40
Speaker 1: four Americans reported drinking more alcohol to cope with pandemic stress. Specifically,
6:45
Speaker 1: that number is even higher for parents of early elementary
6:48
Speaker 1: school students at fifty and this jump has been larger
6:52
Speaker 1: for women in general. And I know um past hosted
6:56
Speaker 1: an episode on women drinking more during the previous president's
7:01
Speaker 1: presidency and it was how to name it was like
7:04
Speaker 1: patriarchy stress disorder. Oh yeah, we talked about well, we
7:08
Speaker 1: talked about voting stress disorder. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, yeah,
7:12
Speaker 1: that's interesting because absolutely I can absolutely see why this
7:16
Speaker 1: is happening in this whole level of coping mechanism and
7:20
Speaker 1: having that taken away from you, whether it's being able
7:23
Speaker 1: to leave the house or being able to have kids
7:25
Speaker 1: go to school, or being able to do happy things.
7:28
Speaker 1: And so if you're stuck and you're thinking what else
7:30
Speaker 1: can I do? But oh, great, that's a glass of wine?
7:33
Speaker 1: Let me have that? Yeah, exactly. And I know, um,
7:37
Speaker 1: I've seen this is one of the interesting I won't
7:40
Speaker 1: call it a perk, but it's the only word coming
7:42
Speaker 1: to mind. Perks of the job is are you research
7:45
Speaker 1: something and then Google thinks you're into that your problem? Yes?
7:50
Speaker 1: And I know I saw a lot of articles popping
7:52
Speaker 1: up in my news feed from moms who were really
7:55
Speaker 1: connecting to Miranda's storyline with alcohol on and just like
8:01
Speaker 1: that sex in the city. Um, so I was like,
8:03
Speaker 1: huh interesting. Yeah, we'll have to come back to that
8:07
Speaker 1: because there's been a back and forth about whether it's
8:10
Speaker 1: problematic the portrayal or whether it was two on the nose.
8:13
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering because I haven't watched that episode yet. Okay, yes,
8:20
Speaker 1: that's all I'll say. Um. And another thing, one recent
8:25
Speaker 1: study making headlines found that Americans blood pressure has risen
8:29
Speaker 1: significantly during the pandemic, especially for women. Experts again think
8:34
Speaker 1: this is because of the outsized burden the pandemic is
8:37
Speaker 1: having on women, though they do note it's not so
8:40
Speaker 1: much weight gain or chronic stress that are likely the culprits,
8:43
Speaker 1: but diet, sleep, not taking the proper medication, and drug
8:48
Speaker 1: and alcohol abuse. With the caveat that chronic stress cannon
8:52
Speaker 1: often does impact all of those things. A Canadian study
8:56
Speaker 1: of more than twenty eight thousand women found that women
8:59
Speaker 1: with low SO participation or who were alone during the
9:02
Speaker 1: pandemic were at a higher risk of having high blood pressure. Interestingly,
9:07
Speaker 1: the result was the opposite for men. That's interesting. I
9:10
Speaker 1: know I would have not thought of that. I recently
9:14
Speaker 1: Annie went and got my physical because yes, well, I
9:17
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I can't afford the higher costs,
9:21
Speaker 1: so let me go do this. UM and I went
9:24
Speaker 1: and got my blood pressure checked. We were talking about
9:27
Speaker 1: the holidays, and we were talking about everything that's happened,
9:29
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the nurse or the medical
9:32
Speaker 1: systemt I can't remember, was like, as she was looking
9:36
Speaker 1: at my blood pressure and the number she's like, we
9:38
Speaker 1: need to redo that. I was like what. She was like,
9:40
Speaker 1: I think you need to stop talking, and I was
9:41
Speaker 1: like what. And it turned out the numbers that were
9:44
Speaker 1: showing were showing that she would have had to sent
9:46
Speaker 1: me into the hospital had that came back up again.
9:49
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh wow, I have never had
9:51
Speaker 1: high blood pressure ever in my life. And then all
9:54
Speaker 1: of a sudden it went to the point that she
9:55
Speaker 1: was like, we need to remeasure this. So it was
9:58
Speaker 1: really interesting to see it was still higher than I've
10:01
Speaker 1: ever had it, but it was healthier and like, okay,
10:04
Speaker 1: you're okay. When I stopped talking about my holiday plan, yes,
10:10
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, damn, okay. Interesting. Yeah, yeah,
10:14
Speaker 1: this is of the health effects I've noticed during the pandemic.
10:18
Speaker 1: For me, my heart races. It races all the time,
10:23
Speaker 1: and I feel like I can't breathe normally, like I
10:25
Speaker 1: have to think to breathe. It's all just suddenly gasp.
10:30
Speaker 1: So that's been I haven't gotten my blood pressure checked.
10:33
Speaker 1: I'm just assuming it's pretty high, but my heart does
10:36
Speaker 1: race and it makes me really lightheaded. Uh, and this
10:41
Speaker 1: kind of it wasn't great for my heart either. Learning this,
10:45
Speaker 1: but having higher blood pressure increases the risk of stroke
10:47
Speaker 1: and heart attack to the leading causes of death in
10:50
Speaker 1: the US. Stud women found that women with high job strain,
10:55
Speaker 1: high stressful life events, and high social strain were very
10:59
Speaker 1: highly asociated with greater risk of heart attack and there
11:02
Speaker 1: was a increase of this risk. Early data suggest that
11:06
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, women are at a greater risk for
11:11
Speaker 1: heart disease. That's not great and the signs are different
11:15
Speaker 1: for women, and so people can't recognize her because it
11:17
Speaker 1: is also a lot of misinformation when it comes to
11:21
Speaker 1: signs of a heart attack. My mother was a victim
11:24
Speaker 1: of that, and the doctor would not listen when he
11:28
Speaker 1: was like, my jawline hurts. I don't understand. Was sit home,
11:32
Speaker 1: went back again because it wouldn't stop, and then she
11:35
Speaker 1: had no chest pains at the time, but she's like
11:36
Speaker 1: getting dizzy and my jaw hurts. Her main artery was
11:41
Speaker 1: clogged to the point that they're like, this is the
11:42
Speaker 1: widow maker. You almost died and had to have a
11:45
Speaker 1: major surgery immediately. Was she was properly diagnosed, but had
11:49
Speaker 1: been having having symptoms for like a week, and no
11:52
Speaker 1: one listened to her because it did not seem like
11:54
Speaker 1: the normal signs. Yeah, I'm still very angry about this,
11:58
Speaker 1: but anywhere should be. She's okay, she's okay, But it
12:02
Speaker 1: took that long for someone to figure out what's going on,
12:05
Speaker 1: And honestly, it educated me and be like, okay, yeah,
12:08
Speaker 1: it's her heart risk. Different guys should have known, right. Ah.
12:27
Speaker 1: So another thing making the news and making me there's
12:30
Speaker 1: my mind a little bit is the pandemic related hair loss,
12:34
Speaker 1: especially for women. And yeah, there's been tons of articles
12:37
Speaker 1: about this. So thousands of people, if not more, have
12:40
Speaker 1: experienced hair loss during the pandemic that experts believe pandemic
12:44
Speaker 1: stress has cost a lot of as well as post
12:47
Speaker 1: viral inflammation caused by COVID nineteen also the stress of
12:51
Speaker 1: having COVID. I haven't had COVID so far that I've known.
12:54
Speaker 1: Every time I've tested it's been negative. But I have
12:56
Speaker 1: had a large amount of hair loss to the point
12:59
Speaker 1: that I have panicked and started like googling, what do
13:02
Speaker 1: I do? Clumps of it? Y'all is bad. So in
13:06
Speaker 1: the first year of the pandemic, a Google searches, including
13:10
Speaker 1: from me, for hair loss increased eight percent, with an
13:13
Speaker 1: average of eight hundred twenty nine thousand a month in
13:16
Speaker 1: the US, and Alissa Melana posted about it, so you
13:19
Speaker 1: know celebrities are going through this too, Okay. Temporary hair
13:24
Speaker 1: loss related to stress or illness is called intelligent effluvium
13:28
Speaker 1: that push his hair into the shedding face more quickly
13:31
Speaker 1: than the hair's life cycle. Due to the shock, the
13:34
Speaker 1: body shuts down processes not necessary for survival like this
13:39
Speaker 1: one because of the cycle. It could be confusing because
13:42
Speaker 1: the event that costs that might have happened several months ago, right,
13:47
Speaker 1: it usually resolves itself within six months. Nope, And that's
13:51
Speaker 1: important to note. With a lot of things we're talking about,
13:53
Speaker 1: they are versible. I will say, and we should do
13:56
Speaker 1: an episode. I think have we done an episode? Has
13:58
Speaker 1: there been an episode about women in hair loss? I
14:02
Speaker 1: believe so, But I think we should come back and
14:04
Speaker 1: and talk about and talk about it again, just because
14:07
Speaker 1: there is so much stigma around it and like this
14:10
Speaker 1: fear and this panic. Yes. And I will say, as
14:12
Speaker 1: an Asian woman growing up where my one identifier is
14:17
Speaker 1: my race that includes uh, my ethnicity, being like black hair,
14:22
Speaker 1: all of that, one of the things I got the
14:24
Speaker 1: most compliments on and growing up was my thick black hair,
14:28
Speaker 1: and that was one of my prouder personality traits, I
14:31
Speaker 1: guess for me when I was ashamed to be Asian.
14:34
Speaker 1: But you know, people love my hair and I was like, okay, cool,
14:37
Speaker 1: that's something I can be proud of. And all of
14:39
Speaker 1: a sudden, it feels like it's being taken away from me.
14:40
Speaker 1: That's a whole different conversation. And that's part of the
14:42
Speaker 1: stigma that we do want to readdress because also we
14:45
Speaker 1: know that aging causes hair loss too, and it's okay,
14:50
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be okay without panicking, but I definitely
14:52
Speaker 1: still panicking anyway. So hair loss is generally more associated
14:57
Speaker 1: with men, but telligent if flu the them is more
15:00
Speaker 1: common among women, especially after childbirth. I have heard this,
15:04
Speaker 1: but any type of stress can set it off, and
15:08
Speaker 1: the pandemic has been more stressful for women and women
15:11
Speaker 1: of color, a point that keeps coming up over and
15:14
Speaker 1: over again with all of this, and again this also
15:17
Speaker 1: has something to do with economically socially, who is being
15:21
Speaker 1: impacted by COVID and the pandemic, and we know that
15:24
Speaker 1: it is women of color specifically, So there are articles
15:27
Speaker 1: out there about how to tackle this. If it's something
15:29
Speaker 1: you're experiencing. But check your sources and do your research
15:33
Speaker 1: because a lot of companies are cashing in on this
15:36
Speaker 1: and you' all the amount of ads because I googled
15:38
Speaker 1: it that I get that seems so ridiculous and sometimes
15:42
Speaker 1: to still buy into it. But still there's a lot
15:46
Speaker 1: of bad information, a lot, a lot, a lot, a
15:49
Speaker 1: lot um and experts recommend seeing a professional who specializes
15:53
Speaker 1: in hair and hair loss. Also, stigma around hair loss
15:56
Speaker 1: is a whole thing again we want to come back
15:58
Speaker 1: to because it is it's very upsetting for a lot
16:01
Speaker 1: of fols. And like I said, for the longest time,
16:04
Speaker 1: I pinned my confidence on my hair because that's a
16:06
Speaker 1: little little that I had. Literally, I was a chubby
16:09
Speaker 1: Asian girl, uh, living in a very white rural area.
16:14
Speaker 1: So the one thing that I felt like I had
16:16
Speaker 1: also attaining abilities, which is what I was so proud
16:21
Speaker 1: of the longest time, and then growing up and feeling
16:23
Speaker 1: like I had to make it like an effort to
16:26
Speaker 1: become more confident. My hair was always a part of that,
16:29
Speaker 1: and losing it it feels, yeah, yeah, it feels like
16:31
Speaker 1: I'm being stripped a little bit of my own personality.
16:35
Speaker 1: And that, and it's a shame that that's the case
16:39
Speaker 1: for anything, obviously, especially when it comes to physical looks.
16:41
Speaker 1: But because we were taught so much that this does
16:44
Speaker 1: matter when you lose it, not because something that's of course,
16:48
Speaker 1: the amount of stress that piles on top of back,
16:53
Speaker 1: like stress, it's getting worse. I don't know this, yes, yes,
17:00
Speaker 1: I mean there's so much to talk about with women's hair,
17:03
Speaker 1: and a lot of people echoed what you're saying, Samantha, like,
17:07
Speaker 1: I just feel like it's such a big part of me. Um,
17:10
Speaker 1: and then we have all of that cultural baggage around,
17:14
Speaker 1: you know, youth and fertility with thick, long hair usually um.
17:19
Speaker 1: And I do think it's really interesting. This is a
17:21
Speaker 1: kind of a separate conversation, but just to drive the
17:23
Speaker 1: point at home that this is such a big thing.
17:26
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that when a celebrity like cuts
17:29
Speaker 1: their hair, a female celebrity, what did she do? Well? Yeah,
17:34
Speaker 1: people lose their mind, have so many opinions and then
17:38
Speaker 1: feel like they can have those opinions as if they
17:40
Speaker 1: are facts and then discredit someone for it. Specifically, like
17:44
Speaker 1: think about Felicity the show Carrie Russell, she had the
17:48
Speaker 1: long curly locks. Uh, and then she cut it off.
17:51
Speaker 1: Everybody lost their mind. I think this is a little
17:54
Speaker 1: before your you know, your time, Annie, But I remember
17:59
Speaker 1: the amount criticism that was plastered in teen magazine The
18:04
Speaker 1: Shame Factor, and I was like, wow, really her hair
18:07
Speaker 1: goes back. I don't understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I
18:12
Speaker 1: think there's also uh again, as far as I know,
18:16
Speaker 1: I haven't experienced this, but I totally get why. It's
18:20
Speaker 1: very stressful, very panic inducing. But also just be careful
18:25
Speaker 1: because I feel like there's kind of verging on. I
18:27
Speaker 1: guess able is um. But you know, the people who
18:29
Speaker 1: get sick and have like chemos there, right, um lose hair.
18:33
Speaker 1: So just you know, always keep those kinds of things
18:35
Speaker 1: in mind. I mean, yeah, things like that in Alpecia
18:38
Speaker 1: and everybody just really going in for the jokes. It's
18:41
Speaker 1: it's really cruel in itself because you don't know what
18:44
Speaker 1: people are going through. Joan Rivers made a criticism of
18:48
Speaker 1: an actress for wearing a hat and hating her whole
18:51
Speaker 1: outfit and talking about how her hair. I can't remember
18:53
Speaker 1: if she was wearing a wig or if she had
18:54
Speaker 1: actually was going bald, but it went after her and
18:57
Speaker 1: turned out she had gone through severe chemo treatments and
19:00
Speaker 1: had lost her hair, and like, I think she actually apologized,
19:04
Speaker 1: but the headlines that it made I still remember to
19:06
Speaker 1: this day because it was just like, oh my god,
19:08
Speaker 1: calm down, you don't know what this is about. And
19:11
Speaker 1: the woman really like had a meltdown and and and
19:15
Speaker 1: finally came out. I was like, hey, I was trying
19:17
Speaker 1: not to say anything. I was trying to live my life,
19:19
Speaker 1: but you're doing this and putting me on blasts and yeah,
19:22
Speaker 1: it is absolutely able ism, and everything about that is
19:26
Speaker 1: Again we talked about the role of hair. We've talked
19:28
Speaker 1: about the level of personal space that people think that
19:30
Speaker 1: they can push, like touching. I've had so many people
19:34
Speaker 1: touch my hair and all sometimes if I know you,
19:37
Speaker 1: it's fine. I've had complete strangers come through and put
19:40
Speaker 1: their hand and like pull all my hair and I'm like,
19:42
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And then when I would cut it,
19:45
Speaker 1: instead of saying oh, well you've got a haircut in
19:48
Speaker 1: the story or not even acknowledge it, being like, oh
19:49
Speaker 1: your beautiful hair. What you do? Yes? So yeah, definitely
19:55
Speaker 1: something bigger that we need to come back about, Yeah,
19:58
Speaker 1: for sure, But to up up this kind of physical
20:01
Speaker 1: impact of pandemic section. We've got to kind of grab
20:05
Speaker 1: bag a few random things that I was interested in.
20:08
Speaker 1: We couldn't find too much data that shows they necessarily
20:12
Speaker 1: impact women more, but it's definitely impacting women. UM. One
20:16
Speaker 1: area is teeth. Numbers from the American Dental Association found
20:22
Speaker 1: dentists across the country reported a rise in bruxism or
20:25
Speaker 1: teeth grinding our clenching in their patients during the pandemic,
20:29
Speaker 1: which can lead to temporo mandibular disorder. And I put
20:33
Speaker 1: that in there. I knew I was going to struggle
20:35
Speaker 1: with pronunciation if I didn't push it entirely. UM which
20:38
Speaker 1: is a disorder with symptoms like jock clicking, pain and headaches,
20:42
Speaker 1: and it's also on the rise during the pandemic, according
20:44
Speaker 1: to six of these dentists. They also reported a rise
20:48
Speaker 1: in chipped or cracked teeth as well from grinding. And
20:52
Speaker 1: I I've always had a problem with my jaw is
20:55
Speaker 1: not properly aligned, so I have a lot of job
20:56
Speaker 1: pain and a lot of like clicking, and I have
20:59
Speaker 1: been grinding my teeth. My jaw hurts. It hurts every
21:03
Speaker 1: day because I'm just so tense oh yeah. Well on
21:07
Speaker 1: top of that, Yeah, I have found myself clinching and
21:10
Speaker 1: I don't realize I'm clinching um to the point until
21:13
Speaker 1: I feel the temple of my head like hurting him,
21:15
Speaker 1: like why what's happening, um, and not realizing that I've
21:18
Speaker 1: done that. I've also clinching to the point that I
21:21
Speaker 1: bite my cheek and I don't realize it. But there
21:24
Speaker 1: is a permanent, like scar tissue that I can feel
21:28
Speaker 1: right now as I'm talking to you, And I was like, oh,
21:30
Speaker 1: that's fun. Um. But even on top of that, I
21:34
Speaker 1: have really bad teeth, literally have an enamel deficiency which
21:38
Speaker 1: costs thousands and thousands of dollars. When I came in
21:41
Speaker 1: from the u S, I just started pulling teeth. They're like, yeah,
21:43
Speaker 1: this is bad. And I was told that I would
21:46
Speaker 1: need to like cap all of my teeth at eighteen,
21:48
Speaker 1: and I didn't because nobody could afford and my parents
21:50
Speaker 1: cutting eye cuttn't. But with that, because of the pandemic,
21:54
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not going to a dentist and I've
21:57
Speaker 1: had so many like different points of pain in my mouth, um,
22:01
Speaker 1: and I'm no, it's dangerous, and I'm sure people are
22:03
Speaker 1: gonna be like, what are you doing? Trying to do
22:05
Speaker 1: home remedies. I'm like, Listenerina is my friend, which I know,
22:08
Speaker 1: I know, don't go win, but I try to kill
22:10
Speaker 1: out any of the bad germs. But yeah, part of
22:13
Speaker 1: that is me. Yes, I hate the dinnist, but be like,
22:16
Speaker 1: even though I know I need to go, Like do
22:18
Speaker 1: I want to risk yeah again going into a high
22:22
Speaker 1: high risk area to get the stud even though I
22:24
Speaker 1: know it's important. Yeah, yeah, no, same, And it's I
22:30
Speaker 1: hate it because I know a lot of people, a
22:31
Speaker 1: lot of people listeners are in the same boat. And
22:33
Speaker 1: I know I'm going to pay for this later. It's
22:38
Speaker 1: gonna be so bad. It's going to be worse than
22:40
Speaker 1: if I had gone. But I'm also yeah, I'm just
22:43
Speaker 1: afraid to go. And it hurts every day. It hurts
22:47
Speaker 1: right now. Um. Also, gastro intestinal and skin conditions have worsened.
22:54
Speaker 1: There's been an increase in reports of tendon strains and
22:57
Speaker 1: plants are fasciitis. My mom just was dealing with this.
23:02
Speaker 1: I had to buy new socks because I've been in
23:05
Speaker 1: so much pain. Oh no, I'm sorry, I don't mean
23:07
Speaker 1: to laugh, but I wasn't expecting socks. Look, there are
23:12
Speaker 1: things that you can buy that helps to compress the hill,
23:15
Speaker 1: and it has been a godsend because I've been taping
23:18
Speaker 1: it up. But just like it hurts worse weirdly enough
23:21
Speaker 1: in tennis shoes because of the way my hill hits.
23:25
Speaker 1: But when I try to go back to work out,
23:26
Speaker 1: I had to stop again because the pole. And I
23:28
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know it was a name, you
23:30
Speaker 1: know when you started googling symptoms and you're like plant
23:32
Speaker 1: or fasts, Like great, let's add that to the ailments. Yes, yes, um,
23:40
Speaker 1: it's still fun. I've I've had it, and I still
23:42
Speaker 1: have my knee runners knee, and it makes me unger
23:45
Speaker 1: because I'm not running anymore. But um. Some people have
23:50
Speaker 1: reported foot spread, um, and that their shoes no longer fit.
23:54
Speaker 1: Some experts say that that might be more likely that
23:58
Speaker 1: they never really fit in the first place, and we're
24:00
Speaker 1: just used to being uncomfortable and now we're like, what
24:03
Speaker 1: is this? Can we talk about why we really find
24:08
Speaker 1: that for so many that slim feet are supposed to
24:12
Speaker 1: be the thing, because I have very very very very
24:15
Speaker 1: wide feet, Like to the point that one person was like,
24:17
Speaker 1: I think you did in the d width and I
24:19
Speaker 1: was like, how dare you? I would never felt really
24:22
Speaker 1: insulted by it, which is not an insult, but yeah,
24:26
Speaker 1: it is like a standard of beauty to have small
24:28
Speaker 1: slender feet for women obviously is the opposite. They have
24:32
Speaker 1: to be bigger. And you're like, why is this a
24:35
Speaker 1: beauty standard its feet? It's it's definitely a feminine indicator,
24:39
Speaker 1: like small feet that should be women big feet. I adapt, Um, Well,
24:49
Speaker 1: going back to that planet cyar fascist thing, I should say, um,
24:53
Speaker 1: they experts think that's because we're walking around and flams
24:56
Speaker 1: your foot where our barefoot more often. Um. Also to
24:59
Speaker 1: expe on on that skin condition point, it's pretty much
25:02
Speaker 1: every skin condition, including acne, which I have seen much
25:08
Speaker 1: worst I needed. But they did say, like masskne, it's
25:11
Speaker 1: not really a thing. It's more we're stressed again or
25:15
Speaker 1: just not up keeping ourselves as much or you know,
25:19
Speaker 1: sheets because that's been shown to right, and I'm definitely
25:23
Speaker 1: doing a laundry way less now than I was. Right. Also,
25:26
Speaker 1: f y, I feel you're reusing the same mask and
25:29
Speaker 1: not cleaning it not necessarily that won't necessarily affect skin.
25:33
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not professional, but it definitely not
25:35
Speaker 1: good for your skin. Also not effective, but yeah, also
25:40
Speaker 1: usually stinks after a while, so watch those masks. I
25:44
Speaker 1: had one mass that smelled like coffee because it's sat
25:47
Speaker 1: next to a candle for so long. Is that smelled
25:50
Speaker 1: like coffee? So I was like, what is happening? Yeah?
25:53
Speaker 1: Well I had that one that smelled like garlic, and
25:55
Speaker 1: you were you were there for that. That was funny.
25:57
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, no, I've made a mistake. I
26:00
Speaker 1: love garlic, but I don't want this. While there have
26:06
Speaker 1: been no specific studies about the pandemic on this one
26:09
Speaker 1: that we could find, chronic stress has been linked to
26:11
Speaker 1: the physical shrinking of the hippocampus, which is part of
26:14
Speaker 1: the brain integral with memory and learning. UM and that
26:17
Speaker 1: did come up in a lot of articles I read
26:19
Speaker 1: about how people think this is impacting our bodies. That
26:22
Speaker 1: is reversible. But they were saying because a lot of
26:25
Speaker 1: people have also reported difficulty concentrating, are you know, remembering things?
26:30
Speaker 1: But that's also stress can be a part of that
26:32
Speaker 1: and not getting great sleep, and they called it left
26:34
Speaker 1: COVID fog. Covid fog. Yeah, another thing. More people are
26:39
Speaker 1: experiencing things like arthritis and carpal tunnel. And I was
26:42
Speaker 1: telling Samantha on my hands, like lock up now. And
26:45
Speaker 1: that's also because we're at our computers or devices all
26:49
Speaker 1: the time, and all that screen time is giving us
26:52
Speaker 1: drier eyes and blurrier vision, two which I have experienced.
26:57
Speaker 1: And I'm glad. I was very glad to know this
26:59
Speaker 1: because I was I was thinking, my lasic is given out.
27:01
Speaker 1: What am I gonna do? I'm not a sponsor, but
27:03
Speaker 1: that is true, um, and many of us are. Because
27:06
Speaker 1: you like to sponsor me, I would be glass take it.
27:10
Speaker 1: It was nice. And many of us are experiencing an
27:15
Speaker 1: increase in back and nickpain. Oh yes, yes, yes, it's true. UM.
27:20
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you. I have been glued
27:23
Speaker 1: to my phone to the point that I'm like, hey,
27:26
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you, Samantha, put the phone down,
27:29
Speaker 1: and I've had to put a timer on TikTok essentially
27:32
Speaker 1: so it'll stop me. Does it stop me? Not all
27:34
Speaker 1: the time, but it makes me think. But because of this, yes,
27:38
Speaker 1: my eyes get blurry or it gets really dry, or
27:42
Speaker 1: it feels fuzzy, and I get really tired, which I
27:45
Speaker 1: know has been a thing with screen time. We've been
27:47
Speaker 1: talking about it for years. Um, but to the point
27:50
Speaker 1: that I'm like, hey, Samantha, you're already depressive as well
27:54
Speaker 1: as sleepy all the time. Maybe not the best route
27:56
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, and I know you're not the only
27:59
Speaker 1: one with that either, especially TikTok minus fan fiction. Yours
28:04
Speaker 1: is TikTok still show with me. Let's move into the
28:22
Speaker 1: mental health birth. Yeah. Now that we've established all the
28:26
Speaker 1: physical impact stress can have on our bodies, and then
28:30
Speaker 1: there's probably a lot more that we haven't even dug into,
28:33
Speaker 1: let's dig into the mental health aspect of this conversation
28:36
Speaker 1: a bit more. Yes. So. At the beginning of the pandemic,
28:40
Speaker 1: multiple studies found that American women experienced increased health related
28:44
Speaker 1: socio economic risk or h r s rs like food
28:47
Speaker 1: and security, housing instability, transportation challenges, and domestic violence, which
28:52
Speaker 1: was associated with quote alarmingly high rates of mental health
28:55
Speaker 1: problems like depression or anxiety, and or harmful coping mechan
29:00
Speaker 1: is ms like alcohol or drug abuse. And we've talked
29:02
Speaker 1: about a lot of this through this. A survey conducted
29:05
Speaker 1: in April found that of the three thousand two women
29:08
Speaker 1: participating had experienced at least one h R s R
29:13
Speaker 1: in the past year as compared to prior to the pandemic.
29:18
Speaker 1: Nearly half of the women reported experiencing a new or
29:21
Speaker 1: worsening h R s R since the pandemic started. Reported
29:25
Speaker 1: symptoms of anxiety and or depression, almost twice the estimated
29:29
Speaker 1: national average for women pre pandemic. One in six displayed
29:33
Speaker 1: symptoms of PTSD. Other researchers found that women have experienced
29:37
Speaker 1: higher rates of insomnia and other sleep issues. And yes, yes, yes, right,
29:44
Speaker 1: these studies are found in the US, right, M yeah,
29:47
Speaker 1: I wonder what these numbers are internationally. Don't get me wrong,
29:50
Speaker 1: because the US doesn't have great numbers anyway outside of
29:53
Speaker 1: the pandemic when it comes to women, and all of
29:56
Speaker 1: these UH alarming risks, because there's tons of it in
30:01
Speaker 1: the US, does not do much for the lower economics
30:04
Speaker 1: social status. We know this UM and the divide is huge.
30:08
Speaker 1: But when we're talking about internationally, when we talk about
30:10
Speaker 1: the small stils that have happened in different UH countries,
30:14
Speaker 1: we know that the numbers were higher than the U S.
30:16
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what those numbers look like now, especially
30:19
Speaker 1: since they've been diverting. The numbers that that diverting the
30:22
Speaker 1: funds two different areas. So I'm really scared to find
30:27
Speaker 1: out those numbers because it's getting worse and worse, and
30:28
Speaker 1: they're having a harder time getting accurate numbers again because
30:32
Speaker 1: they don't have access to these communities and or the
30:35
Speaker 1: communities don't have access to give this information. So but
30:39
Speaker 1: since then, several studies have been have backed this up
30:42
Speaker 1: again and found that the pandemic has had an outsized
30:45
Speaker 1: impact on women's mental health as compared to men's cares
30:50
Speaker 1: Rapid Gender Analysis, a survey of thirty eight countries conducted
30:54
Speaker 1: in one found that three times as many women reported
30:58
Speaker 1: a negative mental health impact compared to men. Those always
31:02
Speaker 1: keeping in mind that depends on people reporting it, because
31:05
Speaker 1: we also know the more likely that women are going
31:07
Speaker 1: to be the ones responding as well as more honest,
31:11
Speaker 1: because we know that mental health is somewhat somehow feminized,
31:15
Speaker 1: uh and weaponized in gender is odd. We don't know why,
31:20
Speaker 1: we do know why, but it's such a sad thing
31:22
Speaker 1: that we talked about self care episode recently, right, yeah, so,
31:27
Speaker 1: but you know, twenty one of women reported increased stressed
31:30
Speaker 1: anxiety and or other mental health struggles and again, like
31:34
Speaker 1: I said, yes, it's based on who is reporting, who's
31:37
Speaker 1: being honest, who's actually taken the time to fill hew
31:40
Speaker 1: these reports. That's another part um, as well as the
31:43
Speaker 1: fact that, yeah, a lot of the workload has but
31:45
Speaker 1: labor load has been placed on women as well. So yeah,
31:49
Speaker 1: I mean, and we're being pretty general here, but you
31:51
Speaker 1: can find breakdowns of specifically like for health care workers
31:55
Speaker 1: or for people who work at grocery stores. You can
31:58
Speaker 1: find really specific umbers. I mean, we don't have a
32:01
Speaker 1: lot of them because, um, while it does feel like
32:05
Speaker 1: we've been in this for decades now, two years is
32:08
Speaker 1: not that long the time to gather data, but there is,
32:11
Speaker 1: there have been people looking into it. It does exist,
32:14
Speaker 1: just not a lot. Also, newly being said, what was
32:17
Speaker 1: once essential workers and giving things have been suddenly called
32:22
Speaker 1: low skill workers. Uh. And it has a lot to
32:24
Speaker 1: do with the great resignation, I think in part as
32:28
Speaker 1: well as we'll talk a little bit about the unions
32:30
Speaker 1: and strikes that are happening all across across the country,
32:33
Speaker 1: because there this has obviously shown the lack of respect
32:37
Speaker 1: and humanity given to essential workers as well as just
32:40
Speaker 1: most workers, but those who are on the lower pay skill.
32:43
Speaker 1: It says a lot. Oh, yeah, it does. According to
32:48
Speaker 1: some numbers, thirty of women have experienced moderate to severe
32:51
Speaker 1: depression during the pandemic, as compared to nineteen percent of men.
32:55
Speaker 1: Twenty seven percent of women have experienced moderate to severe
32:57
Speaker 1: stress compared to ten percent of men. Seven percent of
33:01
Speaker 1: women aged eighteen to twenty four reported experiencing suicidal thoughts
33:05
Speaker 1: compared to seventeen percent of men, and women were more
33:08
Speaker 1: likely to report feelings of nervousness, loneliness, and that everything
33:12
Speaker 1: was an effort. Fifty percent of women reported that the
33:16
Speaker 1: pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health
33:18
Speaker 1: compared to thirty seven percent of men, and those numbers
33:21
Speaker 1: are worse when it comes to women with children under eighteen.
33:26
Speaker 1: I fill those numbers of my soul. Recent studies into
33:31
Speaker 1: the mental health impact of the pandemic on pregnant and
33:33
Speaker 1: lactating women painted a similar picture, and experts warned that
33:38
Speaker 1: this could lead to increased rates of postpardon depression and
33:41
Speaker 1: prenatal infection and illness. Yeah, and there there was a
33:45
Speaker 1: lot of interesting studies on on pregnant women during all
33:50
Speaker 1: of this because, as we've discussed before, uh, there's a
33:54
Speaker 1: lot of medical trials or service studies can't be done
33:57
Speaker 1: on pregnant women, and because of that, it's not good.
34:01
Speaker 1: It's not good in a lot of things. Um but anyway,
34:06
Speaker 1: one stud he found that older women with a history
34:08
Speaker 1: of intimate partner violence and or childhood abuse experience significantly
34:11
Speaker 1: greater rates of depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders during the pandemic.
34:15
Speaker 1: The researchers were specifically looking at how a history of
34:18
Speaker 1: trauma impacted negative health outcomes of COVID nineteen. Since again,
34:23
Speaker 1: women are more impacted by intimate partner violence and trauma,
34:26
Speaker 1: this is another way this is impacting women disproportionately, and
34:31
Speaker 1: women typically report higher levels of empathy, which researchers think
34:35
Speaker 1: is contributing to higher rates of negative mental health outcomes
34:38
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. One that he found that higher rates
34:40
Speaker 1: of empathy were associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety,
34:43
Speaker 1: and trauma. And you and I were talking about that recently, Yes,
34:46
Speaker 1: we did, and we we did a little episode about
34:49
Speaker 1: like everything filling overwhelming anyways and coming back into the
34:53
Speaker 1: reality of like what is this? Um but yeah, that
34:57
Speaker 1: that you and I had this conversation about you know,
34:59
Speaker 1: if you're really an impact. It's really hard because you
35:02
Speaker 1: don't know why. But when you hear the trauma going
35:05
Speaker 1: on to someone you love and or anything around, it
35:09
Speaker 1: breaks you. Um And that's part of being empathetic in itself.
35:13
Speaker 1: And we're not trying to be catching and saying we're impacts.
35:16
Speaker 1: That's a whole different conversation, but being pathetic and understanding
35:20
Speaker 1: what is happening and just knowing that it resonates because
35:24
Speaker 1: you know trauma, that in itself has brought me to
35:28
Speaker 1: a whole new point of like I give off, which
35:31
Speaker 1: we've both talked about, because there is no there's no
35:34
Speaker 1: way to rest from that, especially in times of continued trauma,
35:40
Speaker 1: and we've seen it for a long while now, and
35:43
Speaker 1: because we also have access to social media, seeing that
35:47
Speaker 1: in the first firsthand account from that view is a
35:50
Speaker 1: whole different conversation too. Yeah, And for a lot of
35:56
Speaker 1: these surveys, they referenced other um traumatic of events, like
36:02
Speaker 1: they a lot of people talked about stars and there
36:03
Speaker 1: we studies around that and the stress of stars and
36:06
Speaker 1: what happened because of that, and then um weather events
36:10
Speaker 1: like Katrina September eleven. But for a lot of us,
36:15
Speaker 1: you know, Katrina. If you're in it, that's cute stress
36:19
Speaker 1: and ongoing chronic stress. But if you're not in it,
36:22
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a cute stress where it's one
36:24
Speaker 1: and done, whereas this pandemic is continually chronic for everybody.
36:29
Speaker 1: Um So it's kind of a new It was just
36:32
Speaker 1: interesting to like they were like, we have this data
36:34
Speaker 1: from stars, but stars didn't do this. No, yeah, we
36:40
Speaker 1: don't see this political level that has brought this huge divide,
36:44
Speaker 1: which really has brought on a whole new stress. And
36:45
Speaker 1: we've talked about that in itself and what that looks like,
36:50
Speaker 1: especially if it brings up your family. Yeah, that's stressful.
36:54
Speaker 1: Stressful anyway. So another piece of this is um as
36:58
Speaker 1: we moved to tell health, which in many ways is great,
37:02
Speaker 1: we have to remember not everyone has access to that,
37:06
Speaker 1: and since women are experiencing these physical and mental impacts
37:10
Speaker 1: at a higher rate, that also impacts us more. Yeah.
37:13
Speaker 1: As beautiful as this is, again, who has access to it?
37:16
Speaker 1: Who has an ability to get to it? Um This
37:19
Speaker 1: is expounded by the closing of in person services one
37:23
Speaker 1: the Alfred Hospital reported a two thousand, eight hund increase
37:27
Speaker 1: in demand the women's mental health clinic. Yeah, so I
37:31
Speaker 1: mean it's also a staffing issue at that point, because yeah, yes,
37:36
Speaker 1: and also, as we said, women make up a majority
37:39
Speaker 1: of yes, the essential workers, and that has had significant
37:43
Speaker 1: impact on mental health. And you know, on top of that,
37:47
Speaker 1: we keep seeing this thread of children but also taking
37:49
Speaker 1: up that extra child care um or taking just in
37:53
Speaker 1: general taking care of the house. Because we've talked about
37:56
Speaker 1: that a lot, that the still skewed towards women do
37:59
Speaker 1: much of that work. And yes, a lot of us
38:01
Speaker 1: have experienced loss during this pandemic. I've allowed to want
38:05
Speaker 1: to pet a job normalcy whatever it is, um, and
38:08
Speaker 1: that's impacting our mental health too, write um And just
38:11
Speaker 1: kind of going back to the essential workers, it's not
38:13
Speaker 1: even adding on to the fact of the privileged slash
38:19
Speaker 1: entitled customers who come through to make them to torture people.
38:23
Speaker 1: Since it's what I see, whether it's the new and
38:26
Speaker 1: I know it's not a lot, but there's plenty of
38:28
Speaker 1: the conspiracy theorists who are anti maskers coming in purposefully
38:33
Speaker 1: trying to rile up. And there's nothing that an employee
38:37
Speaker 1: can do, essentially like causing this ruckus to make themselves
38:43
Speaker 1: look like they're politically fighting. I can't imagine being in
38:48
Speaker 1: customer service right now, just working as a bartender for
38:51
Speaker 1: a little while and having drunk people to deal with,
38:53
Speaker 1: having drunk, entitled people who really think they're making a
38:56
Speaker 1: statement and they're making a move. I don't get it.
39:00
Speaker 1: I don't understand. And then again, like I said, when
39:02
Speaker 1: we talk about all of a sudden, they're being referenced
39:03
Speaker 1: as low skilled workers. And I know that was out
39:06
Speaker 1: of one context of conversation, but it was a big
39:08
Speaker 1: conversation because again when we see things like the Build
39:11
Speaker 1: Back Better pet plan was halted again, and part of
39:14
Speaker 1: that was that they didn't want to do living wages
39:17
Speaker 1: because is it Munchen who said, uh that he thinks
39:21
Speaker 1: they're gonna waste it on drugs? Oh much? I can't remember.
39:29
Speaker 1: We're talking about different person. I think that's funny. Are
39:33
Speaker 1: you talking about too many? A different guy? But yeah,
39:40
Speaker 1: he literally supposedly said that he wasn't in support of
39:44
Speaker 1: it because he thinks that these essential workers who are
39:48
Speaker 1: living barely on minimum wage shouldn't get raised because they
39:52
Speaker 1: might expend it on drugs. Racist. Racist, So I'm just
39:57
Speaker 1: gonna I really didn't did think his name was munched,
39:59
Speaker 1: and I'm to leave it at that. You know, I
40:04
Speaker 1: support you. Sorry. The bigger piece of this conversation is
40:12
Speaker 1: the fact that we as a country and and even
40:15
Speaker 1: most of the world don't fund mental health care resources
40:19
Speaker 1: and don't place it as a priority. Yeah, so that's
40:21
Speaker 1: one of the first things to go when it comes
40:23
Speaker 1: to budgeting. The U N and World Health Organizations have
40:28
Speaker 1: found that for mental to low income families, mental health
40:31
Speaker 1: accounts for one point six percent of all the household
40:35
Speaker 1: healthcare budget. That study from the four found only of
40:40
Speaker 1: those who reported negative mental health outcomes due to the
40:43
Speaker 1: pandemic sought out mental health care. Though of course access
40:47
Speaker 1: again is a big part of that. And like I said,
40:50
Speaker 1: that's one of the first things that's probably cut. That's
40:53
Speaker 1: what was happening essentially all around the world when it
40:56
Speaker 1: comes that in uh, women reproductive race, well, when into
41:00
Speaker 1: the protective rise, that's already a fight, like even but
41:02
Speaker 1: it is good, but like women's safety is immediately cut
41:06
Speaker 1: as we've seen. Yeah, and I think from my experience
41:11
Speaker 1: as an American, it's insurance. I didn't even know you
41:16
Speaker 1: could get that covered, and it's so expensive without insurance. Um,
41:21
Speaker 1: so I think that people are getting more aware of that,
41:25
Speaker 1: but it's still, yeah, I can totally see why the
41:29
Speaker 1: number is so so low, right, And of course we're
41:33
Speaker 1: talking about things being cut, we should also go ahead
41:35
Speaker 1: and mention things being cut for people in the LGBTQ,
41:40
Speaker 1: people of color, any services that are not deemed essential.
41:44
Speaker 1: And when I stay essential, it's essentially I don't even
41:47
Speaker 1: because child care is not a part of that. Held again,
41:50
Speaker 1: is not really a part of that. Food is barely
41:52
Speaker 1: a part of that. So uh guess, yeah, there's definitely essential.
41:55
Speaker 1: You just don't get it. Sorry, just make do and
41:59
Speaker 1: don't come plain about it. And uh, self care, we've
42:03
Speaker 1: talked about a lot before, is one of the first
42:05
Speaker 1: things that goes for a lot of us. But it
42:07
Speaker 1: is important to remember that mental health is more than
42:09
Speaker 1: just therapy. Um. And I say this because I read
42:13
Speaker 1: a lot of people, especially mothers, who were saying, like,
42:17
Speaker 1: I can't it's the first thing on my list that
42:20
Speaker 1: goes because I have to do all this other stuff.
42:22
Speaker 1: And I totally get that, but I think it is
42:23
Speaker 1: important to remember, you know, there are other things you
42:26
Speaker 1: can try to carve out, even just a little bit,
42:30
Speaker 1: to try to help me your mental your mental health.
42:34
Speaker 1: And also I wanted to add in here because it
42:36
Speaker 1: kind of made me laugh. Many articles recommended the things
42:39
Speaker 1: we've all heard before, mindfulness, taking time for yourself, exercise,
42:44
Speaker 1: but it's all with the caveat that there's a reason
42:47
Speaker 1: a bunch of us have stopped doing those things or
42:50
Speaker 1: struggle with those things right now. And one of my
42:52
Speaker 1: favorite was it was like, if you're too afraid to
42:54
Speaker 1: go outside, which I generally am, go on a walk
42:57
Speaker 1: in your house. And I was like, well, if seen second, tash,
43:00
Speaker 1: I'll be done with my walk. Your entire bedroom is
43:04
Speaker 1: like a mattress that you can't get past, so that
43:06
Speaker 1: even cuts one room out. Yeah. Absolutely, that made me laugh.
43:11
Speaker 1: I get what they're saying, but you just doing back
43:16
Speaker 1: and for a loop over again, Like all of these
43:19
Speaker 1: things are nice and thought, but if you're a parent
43:22
Speaker 1: of one, two, three, four, five, six, eight children, yea,
43:27
Speaker 1: you you really don't have privacy. Like you can try
43:30
Speaker 1: to lock yourself in the bathroom, but eventually someone's gonna
43:32
Speaker 1: come pounding, most likely if you're at home and you
43:37
Speaker 1: have been stay at home mom um and then everybody's
43:41
Speaker 1: there demanding was already a full time job without people
43:45
Speaker 1: demanding I can't imagine that level. But again, so either way,
43:50
Speaker 1: you're doing double duty and with the expectation that you
43:53
Speaker 1: should be doing these things on top of it, and
43:55
Speaker 1: that's really gross in every way. I would hope that
44:00
Speaker 1: you have a really equal relationship where you can divide.
44:04
Speaker 1: That would be the dream, but even that is stressful.
44:07
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, um, and I mean we're talking about this
44:11
Speaker 1: as you know, big cities across the country suddenly announced
44:15
Speaker 1: like we're going back to virtual schooling. Uh. It's just
44:19
Speaker 1: totally chaotic. People trying to figure out these childcare things, um,
44:24
Speaker 1: which is expensive. But also yes, there is this great
44:27
Speaker 1: resignation of people quitting, so it's a lot in our bodies,
44:34
Speaker 1: in our minds are suffering for it. Um And I
44:39
Speaker 1: don't know, Like I said, it made me feel better
44:43
Speaker 1: to know, but it is. It also scared me because
44:46
Speaker 1: I was like, this is gonna have I knew it
44:49
Speaker 1: was not great and it's going to have an impact,
44:50
Speaker 1: but it's really going to have an impact, right. I
44:53
Speaker 1: mean I really would like to see the differences in
44:56
Speaker 1: which the countries are supporting citizen's instead of just saying
45:02
Speaker 1: may do figure out. Yeah. Essentially with the stimulus is
45:06
Speaker 1: and the different the stimulus is stimuli, the stimist. I'm
45:11
Speaker 1: gonna call it the stimies because I don't know what
45:12
Speaker 1: else to call it. Um but essentially financial support, which
45:16
Speaker 1: we had what two checks, three checks, and it depended
45:20
Speaker 1: a lot of facts. Better to pay your taxes if
45:23
Speaker 1: you didn't pay before, and if you're in a serving job,
45:27
Speaker 1: you probably had to pay back taxes at which you
45:29
Speaker 1: can't afford to pay back because hey, service industry is
45:33
Speaker 1: really hard and you don't make a lot of money
45:34
Speaker 1: off of it. And then when you get shut down
45:37
Speaker 1: completely and you're at a at will state with no
45:41
Speaker 1: unionization or any opportunity to do so, you're really screwed.
45:44
Speaker 1: So the level of downward spiral we're having and people
45:49
Speaker 1: thinking it's okay is absurd, uh absurd, And I know,
45:55
Speaker 1: I feel like when we have somewhat stabilized with all
45:59
Speaker 1: the vaccines and people finally whatever happens happens, and just
46:04
Speaker 1: having to resign to the fact whether this is our
46:06
Speaker 1: life for the rest of our lives and going on
46:09
Speaker 1: with it and or having a solution and actual solution.
46:12
Speaker 1: I would like to see what happens and who that
46:15
Speaker 1: came out on top because it's not a competition. But
46:17
Speaker 1: who came out Okay, yeah, I mean that's when who
46:23
Speaker 1: knows when we will revisit this, Samantha, but that will
46:25
Speaker 1: be interesting. And um, I also wanted to throw in
46:29
Speaker 1: here before we wrap up because I forgot to mention it.
46:31
Speaker 1: But this is also something I've been experiencing headaches. Increase
46:35
Speaker 1: in headaches they have found, uh yeah, and especially because
46:39
Speaker 1: I get migraines, but I usually want to get them
46:41
Speaker 1: like two to four times a year. Um. I think
46:45
Speaker 1: last year I had at least eight, uh and I
46:48
Speaker 1: have I have one right now. And so, you know,
46:49
Speaker 1: awesome related to your jaw and a lot of stuff
46:52
Speaker 1: we're talking about, but just another thing to add on there.
46:55
Speaker 1: Mine has everything to do with my vision. And I
46:57
Speaker 1: don't call my migraines because it doesn't I don't know.
47:01
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that severe, but it's pretty severe. Yeah,
47:04
Speaker 1: I mean, a bad headache is no joke no matter what.
47:08
Speaker 1: Do you wake up every morning with a headache. I
47:10
Speaker 1: wake up every morning with a headache. Can someone tell
47:12
Speaker 1: me about that? I guess we have to research a
47:14
Speaker 1: he know, we want to help me. The listeners to
47:17
Speaker 1: diagnosis UM. There is still a lot we don't know. UM.
47:21
Speaker 1: Data is still being collected, research is still being done.
47:24
Speaker 1: But listeners. If you have anything you want to point
47:27
Speaker 1: us toward, or if you're from another part of the
47:30
Speaker 1: world where things are difference being handled differently, we would
47:35
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can email us at
47:37
Speaker 1: Stuff Media, mom Stuff at I Heart media dot com.
47:40
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast,
47:42
Speaker 1: or on Instagram at stuff I Never Told You. Thanks
47:44
Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Christina. Sorry whining. We
47:47
Speaker 1: love you Christina. We love you Christina, and we love
47:51
Speaker 1: you listeners. Thanks for listening. We hope you're well. Stuff
47:55
Speaker 1: I Ever Told You? Subjected by Higher Radio for more
47:57
Speaker 1: podcast for My Heart Radio, the High Radio app, Apple
47:59
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