Mumbai News

Mumbai stress levels at peak, Chennai least: Study – Times of India

A mental health study done on 8,396 Indians between April and June to capture stress levels of Indians during the lockdown has found that Mumbai was the most stressed – recording the highest net increase of 48% in stress levels.
It was much higher than the rest of the country that recorded an increase of 37%. Bengaluru, NCR and Chennai recorded 37%, 35% and 23% respectively.
The study – Mental health implications of Covid and lockdown in India – was conducted by YourDost, an online mental health platform, that has reached out to two million Indians in the past five years. The study draws attention to the fact that the onset of lockdown did have a major psychological impact in India with 65% people experiencing moderate to severe stress. The biggest trigger was the uncertainty of how long the pandemic would last.
The study recorded a 41% increase in anxiety in the participants and a 38% percent increase in anger and irritability during the lockdown period. And 6% dip in ‘happiness’. Some 59% Indians reported being affected by a fall in work-life balance.
At the beginning of the lockdown, 33% of all respondents reported being highly stressed. By the end of June this figure had increased to 55.3%. Top stress point at the beginning of the lockdown was ‘how long will the lockdown last’ which, after three months of lockdown, became ‘difficulty in maintaining work-life balance’, ‘postponement of exams’ and ‘paycut/job losses. Two in five Indian employees are facing pay cuts. “Team managers also reported high stress levels. They said they don’t have the skill set to manage huge teams remotely and don’t have the tools to measure output in such a situation,” said Dr Jini K Gopinath, clinical psychologist and chief psychology officer at YourDost.
Students recorded the highest net increase in stress levels – 39% -followed by working professionals at 35%. As the lockdown progressed, students continued to be the worst hit emotionally, reporting highest net deterioration in their emotions, particularly in terms of anger, anxiety, and happiness.
Emotional outbursts due to lockdown notched up a 22% increase and sleep deteriorated by 11%. To survive, people adopted a number of coping mechanisms and speaking to friends and family on the phone was the most popular method to cope for students while reducing news consumption was the second most preferred way to beat stress for working professionals.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-stress-levels-at-peak-chennai-least-study/articleshow/77795698.cms