Illness Anxiety, Loneliness and Substance Use During Covid-19 Period

Covid-19 has tremendously impacted the physical and mental health of individuals across the globe. Many have lost their loved ones, jobs, finances, etc. which is enough to change an individual’s life upside down. Though it is to be noted that some groups are more vulnerable than the others. This study aims to identify how males and females’ attitudes towards illness have changed, along with their indulgence in substance use, and how the situations have made them feel lonely and withdraw from their relationships. The study invited 200 participants of the general population, who were requested to fill questionnaires consisting of items based on Socio-demographics, Brief Addiction Monitor, UCLA, and Whiteley-Index. For the purpose of this study, we hypothesized that high degrees of loneliness might predict the use of substances. We are also trying to predict whether people have symptoms of illness anxiety with relation to loneliness and substance use and to check a significant difference between genders. And finally, we have also studied whether illness anxiety and loneliness have a strong positive correlation or not. Single and multiple linear correlation, regression, and t-test were used to find the cause-effect relationship. The findings showed that substance use and illness anxiety has a moderate, loneliness and illness anxiety has a weak, and substance use and loneliness has a strong positive correlation. The paper also aims at suggesting empirically based techniques to deal with these issues.