Ebenezer, Matt (2022) Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Individuals with Pre-Existing Anxiety Disorders: A Thematic Analysis of Reddit Posts. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders were particularly vulnerable to the negative psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most pandemic-related mental health research focused on the start of the pandemic (pre-June 2020) when levels of psychological distress were exceptionally high. Additionally, this early research was primarily quantitative, focusing on increased rates of mental health problems rather than people’s experiences of mental health during the pandemic. This qualitative study aimed to address these research gaps by investigating the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders at the one-year mark of the pandemic, and whether these impacts were similar to or different from those reported in published literature from the early stages of the pandemic. Historical data were extracted from 154 Reddit posts created between 1 March 2021 and 1 June 2021 by individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders within the popular subreddit r/anxiety. Reflexive thematic analysis identified four themes within the data: worsening of anxiety symptoms, psychosocial stressors, vaccine-related anxiety, and positive perspectives. At the one-year mark of the pandemic, individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders described some positive but primarily adverse impacts on mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study's results suggest that the pandemic's impacts on the mental health of individuals with pre-existing anxiety disorders at the one-year mark of the pandemic were similar to those reported by research during the early stages of the pandemic. This study has implications for the delivery of mental health services to individuals with preexisting anxiety during future distressing events like natural disasters or other pandemics.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Carol du Plessis |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 28 May 2025 01:54 |
| Last Modified: | 28 May 2025 01:54 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Pre-existing anxiety; COVID-19; pandemic; Reddit; thematic analysis |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52294 |
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