Hopes and fears: Coronavirus has readers deeply worried but resilient

We’re worried, missing the outside world, lonely for contact with family, but ready to tough it out as long as it takes.

Last week, we shared with you a survey asking a series of questions about your mental health as it relates to the coronavirus crisis. Over 250 of you responded with your thoughts, sharing your hopes and fears and worries. Let’s take a look at the results.

 

FEELING SELFLESS

We asked you how worried you are about contracting COVID-19 yourself, and to rank it on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being least worried and 5 being most. The majority of you are on the high end of the scale: 34.6% of you marked this a 4, and 33.8% giving this a 5. Just 3% of you said you’re not worried.

But we also asked you how worried you are that someone you know might contract it. The numbers were much more lopsided here, with 62.4% of people marking this a 5. The majority of people responding seem much more worried about others getting sick than about themselves.

 

NOT CONFIDENT ABOUT OTHERS

But not many of you are confident that others are doing the right thing when it comes to social distancing. We asked you to rate how successful you think other people are doing social distancing properly. On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being most successful, most of you rated others’ ability to keep safe at a 2, by 35%. Less than 1% of you rated other people as excellent.

 

MONEY PROBLEMS

Businesses are closing down and unemployment is soaring to levels not seen in decades -- even those who don’t get sick seem to be suffering financially. Economic worries are ranking high as well. We asked you to rank your worries about the financial effects on your household, and 91% of you said you’re moderately worried or more, and nearly 42% said you’re extremely worried.

 

SEPARATE WAYS

The social distancing guidelines in place aren’t particularly popular -- they’re put in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus, and people generally do seem to be abiding by them, but being stuck at home unable to travel freely certainly isn’t fun. But in a perhaps surprising turn, two-thirds of people said the social distancing guidelines aren’t strict enough. Another third of people said they’re just about right. Only one person said the guidelines were too strict.

Half of you think the timeline for social distancing isn’t long enough, either. Just under half of you, about 46%, thought that the timeline is just about right. Only about 4% of people thought that the timeline we’re on is too long.

 

WHAT TO DO

Luckily, most of you seem to know what you’d do if you felt you or someone you know had contracted coronavirus -- two-thirds of people polled are confident they’d know what to do. A quarter of people said they might know what to do. Just 8% of people said they don’t know what to do if they think they have coronavirus.

Just in case you’re one of those 8%, here’s what to do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Stay home and rest. most people with COVID-19 have a mild case and can recover without medical help.
Quarantine yourself. Don’t go out in public and risk spreading the disease.
Monitor your symptoms, including your temperature and your cough
Contact your medical provider before you visit, if necessary
If you develop emergency symptoms, like trouble breathing, chest pain, or bluish lips or face, get help right away. Check out the full checklist of what to do here.

 

GREATEST AND LEAST WORRIES

We asked you about the effects of social distancing, and how you would rank them in terms of level of worry. We offered a list of common worries, and asked you to pick your biggest worry, among them getting sick yourself, a loved one getting sick, feeling trapped in your own home, not being able to get adequate medical care, not being able to get supplies, not being able to be close to family or friends, losing your job, or facing a nationwide economic crisis.

Most of you ranked your biggest worry as a loved one getting sick, by 50%. Far below that, at 12.4% is not being able to get adequate medical care.

The thing you worry about the least would be feeling trapped in your own home, at 50%, and after that 12% of you are worried about losing your job.

 

HOW YOU'RE FEELING

We offered some scenarios, both positive and negative, and asked you to check off which ones you felt you were experiencing. Hey, there can be some bright sides to all this, too. But overall, people gravitated towards more of the negative scenarios, with the positive ones being a lot less popular.

The five most popular scenarios:

47.7% reported feeling scared when going to stores
44.7% of people said they’re watching more TV
42.9% of people are feeling anxious or depressed
37.8% of you have had to cancel major events or plans
And 35.3% of people describe themselves as more irritable

The five least popular scenarios:

Only 5.3% of people said they’re not eating enough
8.6% of people are enjoying the alone time
9% of people have picked up new hobbies
9.8% of people have been setting aside more time to enjoy themselves
And 14.3% of people are keeping in closer touch with friends and family

Even despite all this, most of you, 42.1%, ranked yourselves as moderately happy, or a 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. But just 2% of you ranked yourselves as a 5, or most happy.

 

HOW LONG CAN YOU STAND IT?

We asked you how long you could hold out with the social distancing guidelines. It’s never been clear how long all this will have to go on, or if it will have to continue again someday before a vaccine is developed, and we all know that uncertainty can bring unhappiness and dissatisfaction. But in another perhaps surprising answer, a clear majority, 55.3%, said you’d manage to hold out as long as needed to keep safe. Around 20% said you could only handle about another month, with another 20% saying you could stand another several months. Only 4.5% of you said you wanted the restrictions lifted now, no matter what the repercussions are.

 

WHAT WE MISS

We had an open-ended question in our survey: We asked you to fill in the blank about what you miss most right now. And the responses we got were thought-provoking, sometimes funny, and all very touching.

For the most part, people miss the general sense of normality and freedom in their lives -- being able to come and go as they please, seeing family, going to work and having a social life, visiting restaurants, watching sports ... and more than a few of you mentioned you missed sex.

Some specific answers we received revolved around family: “Miss seeing family. We’ve already missed a couple of birthdays, too.” “Family hugs,” said someone else. “Not being able to be with my granddaughter.” “Dinners with my sister.” “Hugging my 88-year-old dad.” “My mom wants to come home from Florida and she can’t.” “Being physically with my family, especially my 6-year-old granddaughter.”

Other answers were more about friends. “Making plans for the future.” “Visits to the nursing home to see my ‘peeps’” was something one respondent missed dearly. “Girls night out dancing.” “Interacting with church family and chorus friends.” “It's a routine of playing tennis, eating at restaurants, going to church, and being with friends!”

Some people’s answers were complementary. “Being able to teach my students in person,” said one teacher. Another answer that seems to have come from a student said: “Weirdly enough, school.”

School and work were common themes. “Seeing wildlife in the beautiful Wellesley College,” said one respondent. “Performing for people. I'm a musician.” “Working as a hairdresser.” “As a business owner, missing my clients.”

Still other answers were about the general sense of dread and unease and the lack of closeness we all have to feel. “Not having to worry,” someone wrote simply. “Human touch.” “Feeling safe.” Another answer was: “I work in the pharmacy industry. Being around other people without worrying if they potentially will change the course of my life.” “Peace of mind,” said one person. “The illusion of safety,” said another. “Stability.” “Having everyone around me not in a sense of panic.” “Peace.”

Some answers were delightfully specific. In what was by far the sweetest, most adorable answer, one person simply said they miss “sherbet.” Whoever you are, rest assured that one day this will be over, and all the sherbet in the grocery store will be yours.