Johannesburg - South Africa Depression and Anxiety (SADAG) sent out an online survey to over 30 000 members of the SADAG community, where a total of 1 836 respondents reflected on the ways that load shedding impacted their daily lives.
This survey includes their fears, their feelings, and how they were managing to cope with the power crisis.
In a project led by Dr Bronwyn Dworzanowski-Venter (Senior Research Associate, Faculty of Humanities, UJ), it was revealed that SADAG was especially interested in uncovering specific pressure points that could lead to negative psychological and practical outcomes.
Feelings of helplessness were often reported, with one respondent sharing that load shedding: "Has made me feel that I cease to exist, basically. My life feels like it's at a standstill. What can I do? What must I do? I hate the feeling of pressure it puts on me."
Alongside helplessness, employed survey respondents (74%) were expected to deliver work, despite outages, adding high levels of performance anxiety and work-related stress to the heavy financial demands caused by the secondary impacts of load shedding (e.g., food spoilage, appliance breakages, etc.).
Others indicated a new set of psychological challenges, such as emergent anger and a new inability to emotionally regulate, as one respondent shared.
It is also revealed that 1 in 10 people have contemplated suicide or had thoughts of suicide.
Social relations between households were strained; 31% reported problematic family relationships and feelings of isolation.
The survey also reports that load shedding has reduced social interaction between homes and within homes as people scramble to complete all tasks when there is power and tend to collapse into separate spaces in the dark. People also fear crime, and so they tend to stay in their dark homes, further reducing social coping.
"We may not know when the power will return or how to fix damage to the electrical, communications, and water infrastructure, but we can and should build our own psychological insulation infrastructure and frame the crisis on our own terms," says Dworzanowski-Venter.
Another survey conducted anonymously by the adult-themed exhibition Sex Expo revealed its survey findings for 2022, which show that sexual activity in South Africa increases as load shedding kicks in.
The sex survey, done on the expo’s social media page, revealed that there are at least some benefits to the power cuts, as 65% of adults over 30 in long-term relationships confirmed that load shedding has a positive impact on their sexual activity with their partner.
The Star