Anxiety, depression, loneliness at highest levels among Canadians since early pandemic: survey

Anxiety and feelings of depression and loneliness among adult Canadians are at their highest levels — especially among women and frontline workers — since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report released Tuesday by Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) suggests.

"After all of the ups and downs of the pandemic, in terms of the overall mental health of Canadians, in many ways we are right back to where we were two years ago," said Dr. Hayley Hamilton, survey co-lead and senior scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research. 

"With Omicron in full force during this survey period, the relatively lower levels of mental distress reported last summer when the vaccine rollout was in full swing are now a distant memory for a lot of people."

More than 25 per cent of survey participants reported feeling moderate to severe anxiety — up from 19 per cent in July 2021, CAMH said. 

Also, around 24 per cent reported feelings of loneliness in comparison to 18.8 per cent last summer, and roughly 22.3 per cent of people reported having feelings of depression, compared to 18.6 per cent last summer.

Consistent with previous surveys, Canadians between 18 and 39 years old reported the highest levels with 33.5 per cent for anxiety, 29.1 per cent for loneliness and 27.7 per cent for feelings of depression.

The survey, completed by 1,004 Canadians between Jan. 7 and 11, also pointed to a significant gender gap in the results.

Reports of moderate to severe anxiety, loneliness and feelings of depression increased significantly among women in Canada, but only slightly for men.

"These larger increases among women may reflect that they are often carrying a disproportionate burden, including imbalances in care-giving responsibilities and frontline work," said Samantha Wells, senior director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH.

Also workers with jobs that expose them to a high risk of contracting COVID-19 reported "large increases in adverse mental health symptoms," with 37 per cent reporting moderate to severe anxiety compared to 23.5 per cent last summer and 35.7 per cent reported feelings of depression compared to 24. 8 per cent.

"While people are incredibly resilient, as this pandemic wears on it's the people working on the front lines who are among the most affected," said Wells. 

Jaeyell Kim, a Toronto social worker and psychotherapist, says he was not surprised by the survey results.

Kim said he, like many other therapists, is operating at full capacity. He said he noticed a drastic uptick in similar reports from his clients after the Omicron wave kicked in, due to feeling isolated and not knowing what the future holds.

Kim said some clients who started to feel optimism last year because of COVID-19 vaccines and loosened restrictions were hit with a harder sense of helplessness and loneliness during this wave.