Title : Changing trends in mental health and addictions
Abstract:
The presentation aims to highlight the connection between mental health, addiction disorders and ‘the era’ of home office. Thanks to the new circumstances caused by COVID-19, an increased number of people started working from home. Though this has been a long-standing phenomenon, during the present pandemic, this form of work was and is not a choice for most of the employees. Additionally, a significant percent of the CEOs decided to keep home office as an option in the long run because it has a lot of benefits for the companies. In short, working from home is considered to be an everyday change of our lives. How does this affect employees? What kind of mental problems tend to appear because of the change in the mode of work and regarding the situation COVID-19 resulted? And which advantages does home office have in point of the employees? In this context, it is important to refer to the differences in psychoactive substance use, too. Recent studies have been published about the connection between the increase of certain addictive behaviors related to the pandemic. Psychoactive substance use can be interpreted as a tool for balancing extreme emotional situations. On this basis, the self-medication hypothesis of substance use is added, i.e. users try and tend to regulate their emotions and behaviour. The use of substances can be also understood as a coping mechanism to adjust to the sudden changes and stressful events which we all face nowadays. The presentation will analyze these interrelations and provide a picture about how home office and the pandemic effect our mental health. Additionally, the psychological benefits of remote working will be summarized, too.
