https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2024/08/21/innovationrx-covid-may-be-causing-mental-illness-and-rewiring-our-brains/

But as two new studies published in the past week show, severe COVID isn’t the only risk faced by those with the disease. New findings in JAMA Psychiatry find that levels of mental illness such as depression, anxiety and self-harm are elevated after a COVID-19 diagnosis. Additionally, a new study published in Scientific Reports found that patients who lost their sense of smell after a COVID infection saw long-term structural changes to their brains as well as a tendency to more impulsive behaviors.

What! Wow. I didn't know that, you're telling me now for the first time.

  • FloridaBoi [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    there was an article a little while ago that looked at driving behavior and how covid may be a cause of bad driving

    • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Anecdotally this completely tracks in my area, drivers overall are noticeably more aggressive and impulsive since covid started and more cars are clearly poorly maintained leaking oil or backfiring or have really noisy exhausts

      • FloridaBoi [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        If it is Covid or the social fabric fraying, either way people have become super assholes in everyday life

        • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
          ·
          2 months ago

          yea

          Just saw some asshole driving by in a residential neighborhood that has a 25mph speed limit trying to do 40 laying on his horn at the car in front of him in traffic for no goddamn reason

          I'm kind of surprised road rage shootings aren't more common in the US given how many angry fucking morons and guns there are in a place where going everywhere by car is nearly required in 99% of the country

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            You know...

            Maybe the relative lack of violence in the us is bc usaians largely view guns as symbols, rather than as actual weapons? Hmm.

            • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
              ·
              2 months ago

              A lot of it is the kind of performative tough guy disingenuous angry macho bullshit where they want to be belligerent at someone without actually wanting a fight

              As thinky-felix pretty much said before, it's the "BRO, YOU'RE FUCKIN' LUCKY MY KID'S IN THE CAR OR I TOTALLY WOULD'VE KICKED YOUR ASS" kind of guy

              The kind of guy who thinks he could hold his own in the UFC if they pissed him off and got him drunk who has never trained in any martial art and hasn't worked out since highschool ROTC

          • FloridaBoi [he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            They happen all the time but I gotta assume that people make at least some calculation that if they’re strapped so is the other person

      • SoyViking [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        more cars are clearly poorly maintained

        That could also be the cost of living crisis making people postpone car repairs

    • CommunistBear [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I believe it in a heartbeat. Everyone seems to be so much worse drivers now, it's wild.