If virus fails to get you, stress will
Worry and anxiety are adding to the lockdown misery
● Anél Lewis has always wanted to work from home, so when lockdown arrived in March the mother of two thought her dream had come true.
Four months later, the Cape Town freelance writer says she is stressed, anxious and consumed by guilt about spending too little time with her family.
“There is no excuse now to be away from the computer, and those breaks in the day spent travelling to work or driving to meetings are no longer there,” she said.
“The greatest struggle has been the feeling of being always on. As a mom and wife, and now as my own boss, there are no boundaries between work and home life.
“I did not realise how much this was affecting my children until my daughter, who is nine, said to me, ‘Your work has stolen you away from me.’ ”
For Pietermaritzburg business owner Nazli Desai, doubling up as mother and teacher to her three children has been “very stressful”. “On some days I’ve broken down and cried as I’ve tried to juggle work and home,” she said.
Lockdown forced her to close the bed & breakfast she runs, which had left her feeling “overwhelmed”.
Lewis and Desai are among the many thousands of South Africans who are on the verge of burnout as the lockdown takes a heavy toll on mental health.
Calls to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) helpline have more than doubled from 600 a day before the pandemic to 1,200-1,400 now, and the organisation said the number of callers who felt “stressed or very stressed” had risen from 59% to 65%.
“Health experts are comparing the pandemic to an ongoing cardiac stress test,” said Cassey Chambers, Sadag’s operations director.
“At the start of lockdown, people were in crisis-management mode, but as it progressed so people’s isolation was extended, feelings of loneliness got worse, anxiety levels increased, and people lost their jobs or had short pay or even no pay.”
Chambers said Sadag’s spectrum of callers included business owners, health professionals, people who had lost their jobs, parents concerned about their children’s emotional wellbeing and teenagers who were either not coping or feeling depressed.
Afriforte, a commercial research entity at the University of North West, said a survey it conducted among 1,600 people about their lockdown experience found that 46% were at high risk of pre-traumatic stress disorder. About 35% reported stress-related ill-health symptoms.
The findings ring true for Cape Town mother Tamara Sikepu, who was booked off sick for most of this week with high blood pressure.
“My doctor said I’m probably stressing too much and I agree,” she said.
“Having to work from home and homeschool three kids is no child’s play. I regret the decision to home-school them as I’m not coping.
“Most of the time I feel overwhelmed and anxious, and I find it difficult to balance work and family time. I often sit behind my laptop until the early hours of the morning.”
Cape Town clinical psychologist Ilana Edelstein said the underlying issue was “overwhelming unknowns”. Major stressors such as joblessness and financial difficulties left many feeling anxious and impotent. “Stress levels remain heightened by the fear of contracting the illness … Ordinarily we can protect our loved ones, and now we are faced with the possibility that we can harm them or be harmed by them,” she said.
Edelstein said a constellation of symptoms known as “Covid-19 stress syndrome” included fear, worry, traumatic stress and compulsively seeking reassurance.
“Many people feel anxious as they cannot control many aspects of their lives and their levels of trust have been eroded by the perception that government decisions are at times inconsistent, contradictory and uncertain,” she said.
Shifra Jacobson, co-ordinator of the Counselling Hub in Cape Town, said most people seeking help had anxiety and depression, “mainly in relation to the upheaval, the uncertainty and fear” of the pandemic.
“Covid-19 lockdown has brought many mental health issues in the family context to light, with parents becoming aware of their teens’ eating disorders and adults reckoning for the first time with their substance issues or their lack of resilience when it comes to financial uncertainty,” she said.