Letters | Hong Kong protests may take emotional and mental toll that needs addressing

Moving around Hong Kong during the past two weeks or so, it would be easy to think that there is a sharp line between those taking part in political protests and those that are not. The city has largely functioned as normal outside areas directly affected: a mark of Hong Kong’s resilience. But the reality is that political unrest in a community shakes even those not directly taking part, and we need to respond accordingly.

A 2016 study (Ni et al) at the University of Hong Kong, using telephone interviews, found that major depression increased by 7 per cent in the months following the Occupy Central protests in 2014, and that the odds of experiencing depression were four times higher during and after the protests. Crucially, the increase in depressive symptoms was seen regardless of whether respondents directly took part in the protest movement.

Two specific risk factors were highlighted in the study that predicted depressive symptoms, and both are highly relevant to the events so far this month. The first was sociopolitical conflict within families. The scale of the protests this month makes it inevitable that differences in views and values will have bubbled up around many family dinner tables.

The second risk factor was exposure to online and social media content relating to protests. Hong Kong is generally celebrated as a peaceful and harmonious city, so to see footage of confrontations that conflict with our positive image of the city can inevitably trigger a flood of stress hormones.

A 2017 study (Lau et al.) at Chinese University of Hong Kong found that, alongside conflict with peers, negative emotional responses to media reports and worries about safety predicted mental distress in the two weeks following Occupy Central.