‘Loneliness pandemic’: Work from home during COVID-19 takes mental toll on Canadians
“Working from home for many people in our society is a risk for further alienation and feeling very lonely and distant,” said Dr. Roger McIntyre”
Challenges of parenting during the pandemic
Dr. Roger McIntyre on the challenges of parenting during COVID
This is your brain on pandemic: What chronic stress is doing to us
Back in the 1980s, there was a public service announcement on TV that you may remember — or may have seen on YouTube. A guy in a kitchen held up an egg and said, "This is your brain." Then he cracked the egg into a hot frying pan, and said, "This is your brain on drugs." One year into this pandemic, your brain might be feeling a bit like that egg: Fried. "Everything is so much harder," said Stephanie Johnson, a client relationship executive who lives in Toronto. "I don't have the motivation that I used to have. I don't have the efficiency that I used to have." "Defeated" is how Vas Smountas, a freelance graphic designer, describes it. Also living in Toronto, she describes herself these days as "tired, defeated, foggy, unmotivated." And research suggests those feelings are not uncommon right now,...
Pandemic Parenting: Experts on Helping Children Get Past Their Germ Fear
TORONTO -- A year ago, many Canadians were washing down any package that came to the door. Now we’re tearing with abandon into that Amazon box before the masked delivery driver has even left the front porch. But for some, a year’s worth of timed handwashing and pushing crosswalk buttons with our elbows has caused significant stress that won’t be so easy to cast aside when the world turns back to normal. This is particularly true for children who are prone to anxiety. “Certainly (the pandemic) is causing significant distress in kids,” says Dr. Sandra Mendlowitz, a psychologist and co-founder of Reframe Psychology Clinic in Toronto, which focuses on anxiety disorders, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children. “Part of being a child is to have lots of social interactions and learn from that, so I think that it's kind...