65% Indians Stressed Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

We’re living in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting safety measures have completely taken over our lives. That this will affect our mental and emotional wellness is a given, after all, we’re only human. The question is how? 

We have been approached by numerous clients for support since the COVID-19 outbreak started in India. Their major presenting complaints? Anxiety and depression caused by the current environment. Social isolation and uncertainty of whether the supply of daily goods (food items, soaps, hand sanitisers, etc.) has left people feeling very anxious. 

Additionally, a lot of working professionals have approached our Experts, seeking support to help them deal with loneliness, and concentration issues with work with respect to employees working from home.

This definitely warranted further exploration to understand how to best support our fellow countrymen. So we conducted a survey. We received responses from a very diverse set of respondents, students, working professionals, retirees, housewives. The findings were interesting though not entirely surprising.

65% of the survey respondents report feeling stressed because of the pandemic

As can be observed, an alarming 33% reported experiencing very high to extremely high stress.

Anxiety, Anger, and Loneliness the predominant emotions being experienced

When people were asked to to rate the intensity of the major emotions people were experiencing, following were observed to be the top 3 most intense emotions:

Uncertainty of the duration of the current crisis the predominant cause of stress for 47% of respondents

We also asked people what were the specific causes of stress they were experiencing

This of course corresponded completely with the kind of issues reported by our clients and was hardly surprising. 

Other factors acting as stressors were the fear of them or a loved one contracting COVID-19, confinement to home and the consequent lack of social life, and fear of job stability/being laid-off

High impact of stress on sleep, diet and productivity

People were requested to indicate the aspects of their lives that were impacted by the pandemic induced stress

58% of the respondents reported a high to medium impact on their sleep patterns leading to either oversleeping or lack of sufficient sleep

Additionally, respondents report major impact of stress on their diet & work productivity.

Finding comfort in content consumption

When asked for their preferred coping mechanisms:

Listening to music, watching movies and tv shows, and reading as their preferred method was revealed to be the most popular, followed by keep themselves busy with work and/or house chores, and socialising with friends/family over audio/video calls

What was concerning was that despite the high number of respondents who report experiencing stress, only 2% report using meditation as a coping technique and an even lower 1% report seeking guidance from a counselor or therapist.

Clearly, mental health needs to be given far more importance than it is being given right now. To assist you with the same, we have launched “A Better You” Project. Under the aegis of this initiative, we are preparing and listing specific online resources for you to refer to, to take care of your mental health in these trying times

Depending on how affected you are as an individual in these circumstances, you may be in need of a more personalised kind of guidance. For that, all you need to do is connect with our Experts. Stay safe and stay well dear friends.