48% spike in stress levels due to Covid-19, lockdowns: Study

The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that followed triggered a 37% rise in stress levels among Bengalureans, but Mumbaikars were even worse off with a 48% spike, a psychological impact study by emotional wellness platform, YourDOST has revealed.

The nationwide trend showed students to be most affected with a 39% increase in stress levels. Postponement of examinations at multiple levels was a key contributor. Driven by pay cuts and job losses, stress among working professionals rose by 35%.

The majority (53.9%) of the study’s respondents was in the age group of 21-30 years, and a fifth was in the 31-40 age group. "For this study, YourDOST compiled and analysed data from multiple sources to understand the mental health landscape among Indian citizens during and post nationwide lockdown," the platform cofounder Puneet Manuja explained.

The objective, he said, was to showcase "a concrete picture of the impact on the collective mental health of the country’s population as well as individual segments of the population such as college students, working professionals and entrepreneurs.”

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When the nationwide lockdown began, the worrying factors were the uncertainty over how long the phase would last, fear of self or loved one contracting Covid-19, and fear of job stability and layoffs. Three months after the lockdown, the top stress factors were fall in work-life balance, postponement of exams and job losses, the study found.

These led to a significant rise in feelings of anxiety, anger and loneliness. "Lockdown fatigue led to a 22% net increase in emotional outbursts and 11% deterioration in sleep."

So, how did people cope up? A disturbing trend was that due to the associated stigma, counselling was the least used coping mechanism. The preferred options were more frequent interactions with friends and family, more frequent exercises, reduced news consumption, reduced use of social media use and an increase in meditation.

YourDOST is an emotional wellness platform of over 900 experts (psychologists, career coaches and counsellors), open for guidance on Covid-19 related anxiety and other issues.