A look at COVID-19 mental health impacts & spending in Southern New Mexico
When Atanacia Salazar, a resident of Anthony, New Mexico, caught COVID, it didn’t just make her physically sick. A year later, she’s still struggling with the effects on her mental health. She was hospitalized, and remembers the moments where she believed she would die.
“I just remember a lot of people running around, the nurses, everyone. No one was answering me, they put me face down. I remember feeling very tired, like I could not breathe,” she said. “My breathing was getting faster and faster. I was asking God to help control my breathing because I could no longer do it.”
“Then slowly, bit by bit, my breathing started to get better. After a while, they placed me on my back again. The nurse that was there said that it looked like I had given up, like I just wanted to die. How could they think that?” Salazar asked, then she thought for a moment and added: “Yes, maybe at that time I did want to just give up, to just die, because it was so hard.”
The physical trauma remains, she said, including bone-chilling sensations from the slightest breeze since her recovery. But most troubling to her is the remaining emotional toll of COVID, she said.
“Right now, what is left of me is different from who I was before. The person I was before never wanted to be at home, never. I wanted to be out. I was very outgoing,” she said. “I don't know what happened to me. A part of me is so different now.” She is afraid of getting sick and of the uncertainty of the pandemic. But she also no longer enjoys the things she once did, and rarely feels like leaving the house – a common symptom of depression.
If you or a loved one in New Mexico is struggling with a mental health crisis, help is available. Call New Mexico Crisis and Access at 1-855-662-7474 (toll free). Not in crisis but still need to talk to someone? Call or text New Mexico Peer to Peer support at 1-855-466-7100 (toll free).