Covid-19 Anxiety, Stress and Negative Body Image:
I’ve been talking and writing for many months now about the mental health impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and everything that goes with it, such as social restrictions and worry about potential future consequences.
The latest data from the Office of National Statistics (October 2020) found that more than three quarters of adults were very or somewhat worried about the effect of coronavirus (COVID-19) on their life right now. That level of worry has been increasing over recent months as the pandemic endures. Levels of anxiety remained at their highest since the start of April, and life satisfaction has fallen.
As I’ve written about before, more and more evidence demonstrates that this Covid-19 pandemic is impacting on mental health for many, many people. As well as fears about contracting the virus, there are worries about the future, impacts on meeting and interacting with others, difficulties planning, impacts on work and education, and many other factors that lead to these high levels of Covid-19 anxiety and stress.
And whilst I’ve written about these mental health impacts and what you can do about them, a new piece of research has been published that suggests that Covid-19 anxiety and stress may also be having an impact on body image.