We’re now almost seven weeks into life under COVID-19. Most of us are living in some sort of quarantine. Many have lost their jobs.
No one knows when this will end, or how life will look after.
And it’s having a significant impact on mental health.
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 44% of Canadians say the ongoing pandemic worries them. Worry was cited most often from a list of 11 feelings. Anxiety is the second-most prevalent feeling among Canadians.
That said, 34% of those surveyed say COVID-19 has #blessed them with gratitude. Meanwhile, 30% say they are just straight-up bored. Only 6% say they are happy.
Half of Canadians (50%) report a worsening of their mental health, with one-in-ten (10% overall) saying it has worsened ‘a lot’,” Angus Reid says in a statement. The organization speaks of “a nation whose optimism and resilience has been literally depressed by the events of the last month-and-a-half.”
Angus Reid’s COVID-19 Impact Index offers a glimpse of how Canadians are impacted by mental and financial duress. The Index categorizes the population as Managing Well mentally and financially, those who are Mentally Struggling, or Financially Struggling, and those who are Hardest Hit.
The despair is not distributed evenly from coast to coast. A third of Albertans (32%) fall under the Hardest Hit Category compared to only 20% of Quebec residents.
Despite the difficult times, the majority of Canadians have come to terms with the situation. Three-quarters of Canadians say soon to begin lifting restrictions on businesses and public gatherings in their province.
