Burnout, not COVID-19 restrictions, most affected mental health in Singapore during the pandemic

“The stress of reduced personal space and options for leisure inevitably reduces life to just work or school within the confines of our home environments,” said Dr Zheng, who observed that a lack of work-life balance and social isolation caused more of her patients to experience burnout during the pandemic.

COVID-19 restrictions hurt people’s ability to take “micro steps” to manage stress, such as meeting friends and working out at the gym, and made “macro steps” like travelling harder too, said psychologist Muhammad Haikal Jamil of ImPossible Psychological Services.

The pandemic’s economic impact also made workers more vulnerable to burnout, although this could develop along two very different trajectories.

On the one hand were high performers from industries that were in demand during the pandemic, who pushed themselves to make the most of this time by doing more.

“A lot of these high performers viewed these past two years as a chance to capitalise. It’s like … ‘It’s booming now, I better work harder,’” said Ms Crystal Lim-Lange, co-founder of leadership consultancy Forest Wolf.

On the other hand were people for whom business was going badly, and for whom the pandemic was a stressful and demoralising time, she said.

These developments meant that generally, more people sought mental health support during the pandemic, those working in the industry told CNA.

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