Stress, isolation, feelings of failure: Rising costs are taking a toll on mental health this holiday season
CBC
Stephanie Watts and her husband are forgoing Christmas presents this year and giving themselves the gift of dining out.
The Metro Vancouver-based first responder and her partner both have full-time jobs, but Watts says the cost of living has made penny-pinching essential and a night on the town financially out of reach.
"On paper, I make what should be a comfortable middle-class living wage but it's just not cutting it anymore," said Watts, speaking on CBC's The Early Edition.
"It's exhausting, you know, the constant calculating: 'OK, how much are all these things going to cost? How can I pack as many things as I can into this one errand so that I can save some gas?
"If we are feeling that, what are people on the low-income spectrum feeling?"
Likewise, outreach worker Anita Lau says the holidays — and day-to-day life — are feeling more difficult than ever.
"It's spend less, eat less, socialize less," she said. "We try to survive."
Statistics show they are not alone.
According to a recent online Ipsos survey of 1,000 Canadians, 78 per cent of respondents say inflation and interest rates have significantly affected their holiday spending budget.
More than half of people surveyed said they are staying home to save money these days and 38 per cent of people are worried they will not be able to feed their families.
Murray Baker, manager of financial empowerment at Family Services of Greater Vancouver, said he has many clients who can no longer cover the cost of a meal or activity outside their homes, and he is seeing the effect that is having first hand.
"It is having an impact on people's mental health," said Baker.
In the wake of an already isolating pandemic, being cooped up without the means to socialize causes relationship tension and individual emotional hardship, he added.
As an outreach worker with the Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, Lau works with low-income Chinese-speaking seniors in Vancouver's Chinatown and Downtown Eastside, helping them navigate their basic needs.
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