Coping with global crises during the COVID-19 pandemic

The rise of COVID-19 quickly led to a parallel mental health crisis that seems to be worsening in the third year of the global pandemic.

In a survey conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), around 25.1 per cent of 1,004 participants reported feeling moderate to severe anxiety, much higher than the 19.1 per cent reported the previous year. Similar increases were seen in depression and loneliness metrics.

Sociologist Dr. Marisa Young says coping with multiple global crises, from wildfires to protests and war, against the background of the already disastrous pandemic is a punishing test of people’s psychological endurance.

“It’s almost as though we’ve been broken mentally and we’ve not yet had the time to rehabilitate from that unfortunate event,” said Young. “We’ve kind of reached that point where we don’t have those same resources to deal with it [as before] … we’ve been pushed to that threshold of psychological strength and tolerance, given everything we’ve endured over the past two and a half years.”

Coping with the state of the world

Young says in her research, there are two sets of resources or actions that prove most effective when trying to cope with numerous, simultaneous factors causing psychological distress.

Taking back agency

Young says when you feel like you lack agency over what is happening in your life or world, it has a negative effect on mental health.

“Right now with everything that’s happened with COVID and what’s happened in Ukraine, or what’s happened with recent events with the occupations in Toronto and Ottawa, as well as across the country, I think we felt very out of control,” she said.

Young says the first step toward strengthening your mental health is reclaiming that sense of control.

“In order to try to regain that sense of control or really psychological mastery, take a reflective pause on things that you can and cannot control … I would say that this is particularly in one’s very local contained domain,” she advises.

She says the ending of provincial mask mandates is a good example.

“Now you have no control over whether you go to a place indoors and feel comfortable or not with others not wearing masks. And unfortunately, the only control that we can have is wearing a mask if we feel we want to wear a mask,” she said. “So those are the things that we really have to grab onto and recognize … draw on those smaller things or smaller events where we can take that control.”

In addition, she suggests taking time to assess whether your action or inaction in a situation would change the outcome.

“[Think about] would this have happened regardless of my level of intervention? Or is this something that I should really get upset about and worry about because that is going to make a difference,” she said.

“The worry component is something that a sense of control can help individuals scale back on.”

Similarly, she advises taking charge of the information you absorb through various media.

“If you put the phone down and make sure that you have control of that, rather than letting that information flood you or inundate you,” it will help you feel like you’re taking control of the situation.

Reengaging with society

Young says the pandemic necessitated distancing and isolation, which often forced people to cope with various stressors on their own. While electronic forms of communication can help, they are not a long-term replacement for the real thing.

Now that mandates are being lifted and society is reopening, Young says it is important to reengage with our communities.

“Rather than isolating one’s self to watching the news and seeing all of the devastating images and circumstances, reconnect with individuals,” she said. “Even if you are still talking about those certain events, you’re doing it with others and there’s a sense of comfort and support there.”

Young also cautions against putting the onus entirely on yourself or others to “fix themselves” through self-care — a concept that has gained popularity in recent years.

While it has its place as a mental health strategy, she says “we don’t want individuals to feel that it’s all on them to work through and rebuild the psychological resources and the social resources that we’ve lost.”

“So this is where I would also say turning to the institutions, organizations and communities with which we engage daily [will be helpful],” she said.