Brexit is affecting our mental health, warn doctors – cosmopolitan.com

I don't know what's more nauseating, the amount of time we've already spent talking about Brexit, or the amount of time we have yet to come talking about Brexit. Well, doctors have now confirmed that the national feeling of Brexit fatigue isn't just causing excessive day-to-day eye-rolling, it's also increasingly the root cause of a number of distressing mental health problems.

Recently, Dr Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu of Nottingham issued a warning on the detrimental effect political upheaval can have on our mental health, stating that he had just treated a patient with the first case of Brexit-triggered psychosis.

Reportedly, the patient suffered increasing hallucinations and delusions after the results of the 2016 referendum, spending a lot of time airing his thoughts on social media. According to his wife, he worried increasingly about racially motivated attacks and once he was admitted to a hospital he tried to "get the hell out of this place" by attempting to burrow through the floor with his hands.

The problem seems to be worsening, as earlier this year The Mental Health Foundation found that 1 in 4 people felt "powerless, angry or worried" as a result of Brexit, with only 2% feeling confident about it.

Dr Katshu wrote about the incident in the BMJ Case Reports, saying that the patient presented as "agitated, confused and thought disordered. He had auditory hallucinations, and paranoid, referential, misidentification and bizarre delusions. He also stated that political events are known to be "major psychological stressors".

Speaking to Elle, Dr Perpetua Neo, a London-based psychologist and executive coach advised on how to reduce anxiety stemming from Brexit. One way to prevent it from going to far, Dr Neo suggested, is to really think about what youre clicking on.

"Obviously we have to think about the algorithms. If youre always clicking on fear-mongering sites, sites that trigger your anxiety, sites that talk about how bad Brexit is, then the algorithm is going to keep this stuff coming up. It becomes a vicious cycle," she warned.

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Brexit is affecting our mental health, warn doctors - cosmopolitan.com